Imagination as the ground of reality, with Patrick Harpur Essentia Foundation 2023-04-02 | In this wide-ranging interview, one of our favorite scholars, Patrick Harpur, discusses the fundamental role of the imagination in human history, the human mind, and reality at large. He also discusses the daimons, those elusive, contradictory figures who inhabit minds and the world, but who appear only to those with the eyes to see. Harpur's extensive, extraordinary, life-transforming body of work is one of the most criminally underrated in modern scholarship.This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Science of Near Death Experiences Essentia Foundation 2024-10-15 | Dr. Pim van Lommel talks about the first scientific study on Near Death Experiences (NDE)Full interview youtube.com/watch?v=NVsBFOB7H44
What Came Before the Big Bang? | Theory of Embedded Intelligence, Bill Mensch & Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-10-13 | Could it be a coincidence that two founding fathers of modern day computing, independently from each other, are both coming with theories of consciousness that are idealist in nature? Or does a deep understanding of what computation is—and what it is not—inevitably lead away from physicalist ideas on consciousness?Previously Essentia Foundation presented the work of Federico Faggin, and now a legendary contemporary of his, computer engineer Bill Mensch, presents his Theory of Embedded Intelligence (TEI) to us. Mensch was a major contributor to the Motorola 6800 and became famous for his work on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, a chip that, because of it’s efficiency, completely revolutionized computing in the 80’s. From Arcade halls to the Apple II and Nintendo 8 bit consoles, 6502s could be found everywhere. Even to this day the chip is still used in children's toys and even in pacemakers and satellites.Looking back at his career, Mensch realizes that building computer chips is in essence a form of ‘embedding’ intelligence in technology, just as nature has embedded intelligence in biological systems, like humans. In his TEI model intelligence is fundamental. This raises the philosophical question of how consciousness relates to intelligence, and for this reason Bernardo Kastrup joined in on the conversation Mensch and Hans Busstra had.The value of a theory like Mensch’s is perhaps exactly that it is not philosophically fine-tuned to the terminology commonly used in philosophy of mind. By not taking the human mind and phenomenal consciousness as its departure point, but intelligence instead, Mensch arrives at a position in which the distinction between living beings and abiotic systems is less distinct.Mensch's slides can be downloaded here: essentiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Theory-of-Embedded-Intelligence-by-Bill-Mensch-2024-08-30.pptx00:00 Introduction03:30 Bernardo Kastrup on the importance of Bill's work 08:17 Start of Bill Mensch's presentation 11:16 The model of intelligence in the TEI 14:06 Consciousness as Sense, Process, Communicate and Actuate (SPCA) 25:36 Evolution from Free Intelligence 30:53 Collective intelligence evolution 33:41 On Machine Intelligence 35:58 Learning from Nature38:30 Learning from Embedded Intelligence Technology 41:20 End of presentation, Start Q&A 42:07 How does Bill's theory enrich Bernardo Kastrup? 45:34 How Bill's model of intelligence relates to an analytical idealist framework 49:40 Why is intelligence embedding itself in our universe? 52:57 Phenomenal consciousness and intelligence 55:32 The distinction between living systems and abiotic systems in Bill's theory 57:07 Sensing, cognition and relevance realization 59:04 Bill on cosmology 1:02:05 The difference between living systems and technology 1:08:57 In a certain sense we are the same as computerchips 1:10:23 On Michael Levin's work 1:13:58 Is Nature's Free Intelligence, GOD? 1:21:56 On mythology in science 1:26:35 Closing remarksCopyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Einsteins Biggest Blunder | Prof. Bernard Carr & Bernardo Kastrup PhD Essentia Foundation 2024-10-07 | Sometimes mistakes in physics turn out to be more important than we think.Prof. Bernard Carr explains how Einstein's idea of the cosmological constant, first thought of as one of his biggest blunders, turned out to be one of his biggest contributions. Watch The Entire Interview: youtu.be/pR0etE_OfMY?si=5MxwJrcGpBYFHbyG&t=3017Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Science of Precognition | Dr. Julia Mossbridge Essentia Foundation 2024-09-21 | Mainstream science still tends to dismiss extrasensory phenomena (ESP). However, these so-called 'anomalous phenomena' are key to understanding the nature of reality, claims Dr. Julia Mossbridge: "We are beginning to change the way we think as science enters the 'maybe we got it all wrong' phase." In this interview, Natalia Vorontsova talks to Julia about her research in fields ranging from neuroscience and psychology to physiology and physics, tackling questions of free will, the nature of time, the mind-body problem, and key metaphysical implications.Please use the links below to learn more about Julia's work.jmossbridge.medium.com/five-ideas-about-unconditional-love-5dc5b7d81780https://www.timemachine.love/loveandtime.orgapa.org/pubs/books/4316171thepremonitioncode.com00:00:00 Interview intro00:02:47 Julia's background and life journey00:12:23 Julia's main areas of research00:16:17 Most interesting research cases and AHA moments00:25:20 Science and the nature of reality00:36:21 Do we need the brain for ESP?00:46:14 What is the fundamental level of reality?00:48:45 Unconditional love: understanding and explaining vs. experiential approach00:51:42 The role of the heart and mind in perception and cognition00:56:24 Intuition vs. rational mind: a fresh look at systems 1 & 201:00:22 Flow states and altered states of consciousness: the importance for ESP01:05:40 Free will: the misconstrued question01:10:07 Hide-and-go-seek by the Universe01:12:10 Can the future influence the past and present?01:19:35 The nature of time and our experience of time01:25:25 There is no 'now', only our experience01:26:34 Precognition: likely scenarios and multiple timelines01:28:22 Is consciousness also a fundamental reality?01:30:36 The future of AI01:33:34 Advice for ESP researchers and the future of science01:36:12 Reflecting on free willYou can find interview with Partick Harpur here:youtube.com/watch?v=w_sj8KOgO3Q&t=33s&pp=ygUiZXNzZW50aWEgZm91bmRhdGlvbiBwYXRyaWNrIGhhcnB1cg%3D%3DYou can find interview with Bernardo Kastrup here: youtube.com/watch?v=zoOi79nQywE&t=79s&pp=ygUdZXNzZW50aWEgZm91bmRhdGlvbiBmcmVlIHdpbGw%3DCopyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Schrödingers Cat is Conscious and that Changes Everything | Bernardo Kastrup PhD Essentia Foundation 2024-09-20 | This video is a clip of a longer video, watch the whole video here: youtu.be/DyzHYnOqIoU?si=vOo1qtvC5xO2XPxH&t=648 Every week the Essentia Foundation selects the most insightful parts of the longer videos on this channel. In this clip, Bernardo Kastrup explains why the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment is often misunderstood. The cat is not dead and alive at the same time, because it is conscious itself, and consciousness as we know it only perceives nature in a defined state. Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Is the Conscious Observer Creating the Material Universe? | Prof.Bernard Carr & Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-09-11 | Watch The Entire Interview: youtu.be/pR0etE_OfMY?si=Iq5ipTM1hv5kz828&t=8434Professor Bernard Carr and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup discuss the consciousness causes collapse interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and John Wheelers idea of 'history creation'.Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Can We Be Rational AND Spiritual? | Prof. John Vervaeke on Solutions to the Meaning Crisis Essentia Foundation 2024-09-08 | For more than a decade Prof. John Vervaeke has been studying what he calls the meaning crisis: “Millions live disconnected and without a sense of home—anxiety within, alienation without, and a sense of absurdity with the world. The scientific world gives us tools for innovation, but it cannot tell us how to live. Few of us know where to turn to develop the transformative wisdom necessary to cultivate a meaningful life.”Hans Busstra sat down with John Vervaeke to discuss the meaning crisis, the Zombie myth we’re in, and how it all relates to what Vervaeke calls "rabbit hole metaphysics": the conspiratorial, outlandish and often absurd ideas people start believing in, in search of meaning. A characteristic of rabbit hole types of metaphysics is that they have a ‘thick’ description of reality: a constellation of ungrounded assumptions build up to a ‘once you get this, there’s no way back’ narrative, which repeats itself in online echo-chambers.John Vervaeke's YouTube channel: youtube.com @johnvervaeke The Vervaeke Foundation:vervaekefoundation.orgChapters00:00 Intro edit with highlights06:01 Is John Vervaeke a 'Wounded Healer'? 09:53 The only modern myth is the myth of Zombies...13:18 How to kill the Zombies? 15:25 What is the origin of the meaning crisis? 19:59 Metacognition and the Axial revolution 24:40 How we became locked into dualism 26:25 Hume's empiricism and Newton's attempt of integration 28:51 Unawareness of metaphysics: Vervaeke's critique on Kant's critique 32:51 Kant and ontology 34:20 Heidegger, Wittgenstein and the attempt to break out of the Cartesian split.36:59 Quantum and a relationality ontology 39:57 Vervaeke's ontology of transcendent naturalism45:29 On what's happening in psychedelic research 50:09 What about Buddhism and mindfullness without the ontology? 53:13 On the necessity of religion 56:59 Defining the sacred 1:00:46 Psychedelics and the advent of the sacred 1:03:52 On spiritual bypassing and rich ecologies of practices 1:08:20 Intelligence, rationality wisdom and relevance realization 1:16:39 The alignment problem 1:21:20 Where in your model do you fit phenomenal consciousness? 1:26:41 On the adverbial vs adjective quality of consciousness 1:28:12 Can machines be conscious and have relevance realization? 1:30:41 The library of Babel 1:34:03 On the syntax-semantics divide 1:37:29 Penrose's argument about the non-computability of consciousness and quantum mechanics1:43:11 A consciousness theory should be compatible with cognition first, not physics 1:44:47 The work of the Vervaeke foundation 1:47:20 All the thinking that goes into a 'thin' description... 1:48:07 John's own ecology of practice 1:55:32 What was John's last moment of STRONG transcendence? Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Gap Between Subjective & Objective Time | Bernardo Kastrup PhD and Prof. Bernard Carr Essentia Foundation 2024-09-05 | Watch The Entire Interview: youtu.be/pR0etE_OfMY?si=cismZIfIViJXiWZf&t=1192In this clip Professor Bernard Carr and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup PhD are interviewed by Hans Busstra about their perspective on time, and whether there is a difference between subjective time (time as we experience) and objective time (what clocks measure).Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Why Free Will & Determinism Are The Same | Bernardo Kastrup PhD Essentia Foundation 2024-08-28 | Bernardo Kastrup argues why the dichotomy between free will and determinism is false. Watch the entire interview here: youtu.be/Nv1OXXfTYfk?si=5gpR6LlbCm1mjoWQ&t=890In this Q&A, Bernardo Kastrup (Director of the Essentia Foundation) and Hans Busstra delve into the concept of free will through the lens of analytical idealism. Do we truly possess free will or does determinism deny this. Or could they both be true at the same time?Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Quantum Consciousness Debate: Does the Wave Function Actually Exist? | Penrose, Faggin & Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-08-25 | Two giants of science and technology—Nobel Laureate in physics, Sir Roger Penrose, and inventor of the microprocessor, Federico Faggin—meet to discuss their ideas on the relationship between Quantum Physics and consciousness, with the special participation of our own Bernardo Kastrup. While always respectful and congenial, the participants don't shy away from disagreements. Their starting difference regards Quantum Theory itself: while Federico Faggin and Bernardo Kastrup allow its implications to inform their views, Sir Roger Penrose believes the theory itself to be at least incomplete and require further development. The discussion helps pin down and make explicit the fine points of the three gentlemen's respective ideas regarding consciousness.Roger Penrose's and Stuart Hameroff's original paper: doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1998.0254 Federico Faggins paper with Mauro D'Ariano: arxiv.org/abs/2012.06580 This paper formed the basis for Faggin's new book which can be ordered here: amazon.com/Irreducible-Consciousness-Computers-Human-Nature/dp/1803415096#00:00 Brief summary of the debate04:29 Introduction of the speakers05:48 Roger Penrose's theory and recent empirical findings in favor of it.16:32 Bernardo Kastrup on the main differences between Roger Penrose's and Federico Faggin's views.19:48 Roger Penrose responding to Kastrup's and Faggin's interpretation of quantum mechanics.22:23 Federico Faggin on Penrose's view that quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory.25:43 Roger Penrose on the idea of the collapse of the wave function as a free will decision.30:38 Bernardo Kastrup responding to Penrose's ideas around a unifying theory and objective collapse32:14 Kastrup telling Penrose collapse isn't real.34:31 Could a unifying theory point to the fundamentality of consciousness?37:10 Faggin replying to Penrose's objections to the idea of consciousness being primary.39:55 To Roger Penrose: Is it fruitful to pursue the route of saying consciousness is fundamental?44:42 Kastrup on a false dichotomy in collapse interpretations54:11 Can we get from syntax to semantics?57:57 Faggin on what qualia are59:33 The ontology of Roger Penrose: does mathematics 'exist' ontically?1:04:18 On Wheeler's participatory universe1:13:51 Is there any point to consciousness without free will?1:17:15 Is consciousness restricted to brains?1:21:26 What defines the human?1:26:37 Al is a misnomer it's not intelligent1:29:15 Closing remarksCopyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Is Death A Lie? | NDE Researcher Dr. Donna Thomas Essentia Foundation 2024-08-10 | What if your child could feel their friend's headache in their own head? Would you be able to explain where the boundaries of self begin and end? Or how would you react if your child experienced 'loving darkness' during an NDE? Natalia Vorontsova explored these and other fundamental questions about the nature of reality, consciousness, and science with a researcher of children's transpersonal and extrasensory experiences, Dr. Donna Thomas. Dr. Thomas's latest book on children's unexplained experiences:collectiveinkbooks.com/essentia-books/our-books/childrens-unexplained-experiences-post-materialist-worldEssentia Books:collectiveinkbooks.com/essentia-books00:00:00 Interview Intro00:01:45 Intro Dr. Donna Thomas00:02:14 Personal journey: from NDE and transpersonal experiences to science00:10:55 Children as partners and not just subjects in research00:13:14 Donna's research and amazing stories from children00:21:02 Problems, questions and methods in ESP research with children00:32:38 Most common unexplained experiences in children00:36:11 The biggest AHA moments00:44:17 How materialistic science explains ESP in children00:49:05 What metaphysics Donna's research points to00:52:32 How philosophy supports Donna's research00:59:56 What Donna's research tells us about consciousness01:04:18 The mind-body problem01:06:40 Color cross project with prof. Sarah Durston01:10:35 Multidisciplinary research: Pros and cons01:14:10 Challenges in social and natural sciences01:18:57 Post-materialist science and the world 01:21:49 Donna's book: for whom is it useful?01:23:21 Integrating ESP experiences into our lives. Advice.Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.Song Copyright Code: CQFLKTT9C87UMQCU
Blind Man Sees: Consciousness Beyond The Senses? | Dr. Alex Gomez Marin Essentia Foundation 2024-07-26 | Does research on extra-ocular vision bring us closer to answering the question: is our consciousness produced by our brain? Natalia Vorontsova discusses the mind-brain relationship, the nature of reality, and the future of science with neuroscientist, physicist, and near-death experiencer Dr. Alex Gomez Marin.You can learn more about Alex's work at:agomezmarin.com paricenter.com00:00 Intro and guest introduction00:04:02 Why should science study consciousness?00:07:21 Challenges of studying consciousness: fringe phenomena & neuroscience00:13:34 Alex's research: blind man with extra-ocular and extra-temporal perception00:24:30 Can we all develop extrasensory abilities?00:26:58 Hypotheses for extra-ocular perception: old and new views00:36:34 How materialistic science explains ESP: the old paradigm trap00:47:43 Mind-body relationship: skeptics & believers00:54:46 Edges of consciousness: brain trauma & enhanced cognition01:01:58 Brain function models: transmission, permission & emission01:07:32 Science and the sacred in the age of AI01:10:43 Theoretical frameworks: metaphors, models & metaphysics01:18:36 Healing the wound at the heart of science: pluralism of metaphysics01:28:41 Alex's research and the non-locality principle01:36:48 From a PhD in physics to consciousness research01:42:52 Alex's NDE story and transformation. 01:51:26 Defining consciousness: views of Alex and Natalia01:59:31 The expression of consciousness through art, music & mystical moments02:02:28 Consciousness studies: key barriers & what needs to change02:10:21 Advice for the younger generation: a two-way street02:14:05 Death: the meaning of life, big questions02:20:10 The metaphysics of grace: 'us and them'02:27:18 Where are memories stored: not in the brain?02:33:04 Why can't we remember the future?02:39:14 Final thoughts & resourcesCopyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Computer Scientists Dont Understand This! | Conscious AI lecture, Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-07-14 | In this lecture given at the G10 conference, the director of the Essentia Foundation, Bernardo Kastrup, argues why the idea of conscious AI, though we cannot refute it categorically, is silly. Perhaps we should rather ask ourselves the question why we entertain the idea of sentient computers in the first place. According to Kastrup, this has a lot to do with the fact that most computer scientists are power users of computers but they've never built a computer themselves. If they had, they would be familiar with the nuts and bolts, and they would understand that the idea of microscopic transistors becoming conscious is not that different than proposing that a sufficiently complex sewage system—consisting of water pipes and valves—would become conscious. Exactly because AI is having a fundamental impact on society with many regulatory and perhaps even existential challenges, it is very important that especially in academia we strongly distinguish between fact and fiction: to think that AI's running on Turing machines—i.e. all AI's we currently have—can become conscious is not even science fiction, it's pure fantasy. 00:00 Introduction04:12 Start of Lecture on Al and Consciousness06:23 Bernardo Kastrup's Background and Perspective07:41 Early Career and Al Experimentation10:43 Challenges in Al Consciousness13:07 Philosophical and Practical Implications15:45 Arguments & Critique of Al Sentience18:55 Obvious Differences Between Al and Human Brain21:32 Computer Scientists, Misconceptions & Sensationalism28:42 Cultural and Psychological Factors29:50 What Can We Learn From Nature About Consciousness?35:11 Panpsychism and Its Flaws38:27 Quantum Field Theory and Reality43:44 Moving Forward with Clarity48:39 Q&A SessionCheck this great video by Steve Mould who actually built a computer running on water! youtube.com/watch?v=IxXaizglscw&t=681sConference where this lecture was recorded: https://www.g10vandeeconomie.nl/Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Imagination Is Closer To Truth Than You Think | Tom Cheetham Essentia Foundation 2024-06-30 | Natalia Vorontsova talks to Dr Tom Cheetham about active imagination, consciousness and life-changing experiences in the context of the philosophy and theology of Henry Corbin, Ibn Arabi and Surhawardi. Tom offers a unique perspective on post-materialist science, having come full circle from scientific materialism through Jungian psychology and Sufi mysticism to the realization that science is not an obstacle to accessing the transcendent. It's a thought-provoking conversation about the nature of reality and what it means to be human. You can find out more about Tom's work at tomcheetham.com00:00 Intro: Accessing reality through imagination.03:58 Corbin saved my soul! From scientific materialism to philosophy of Henry Corbin.12:23 Can we do natural sciences outside of materialist reductive paradigm?18:10 Transformative experiences. Crazy stuff? Angels, paranormal, UFOs.31:19 Are emotions just chemistry, and love not important? What's imagination for?35:39 Literalism and fundamentalism. Literalizing - a mode of imagining. It's just love?54:39 Access to the sacred: imaginal vs. imaginary. Mundus Imaginalis - the imaginal realm.01:06:30 It's all imagination down and up! Corbin's Neoplatonic cosmology in the 21st century.01:17:43 Where's our consciousness? Relationship: brain - mind/soul/consciousness.01:20:57 What if our world queerer than we can suppose? Consciousness & language.01:25:37 Sacred plant medicine experiences. Matter-mind, substance-meaning.01:28:18 Success in sciences: mixed blessing? Learnings from indigenous cultures.01:37:27 Science tells the truth? Our connection with arts, music, literature.01:42:56 Corbin's theology: human-angel relationship. Can we retrieve the imagination?01:48:10 Should we keep or abolish Corbin's cosmology?01:56:15 Nature of reality: metaphysics of Corbin, Ibn Arabi and Suhrawardi.02:01:33 Does materialism destroy the world? On the richness of being: living is glory!02:16:40 I didn't choose Corbin, he chose me! Recommended literature.Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Groundbreaking Consciousness Theory By Microprocessor Inventor | Federico Faggin & Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-06-16 | A new theory of consciousness proposes that qualia -- for instance, the scent of a rose -- reside in quantum fields.Federico Faggin is one of the greatest luminaries of high technology alive today. A physicist by education, he is the inventor of the microprocessor and the MOS silicon gate technology, both of which underlie the modern world's entire information technology. With the knowledge and experience of a lifetime in cutting-edge fields, Federico now turns his attention to consciousness and the nature of reality, sharing with us his profound insights on the classical and quantum worlds, artificial intelligence, life and the human mind. In this discussion, he elaborates on an idealist model of reality, produced after years of careful thought and direct experience, according to which nature's most fundamental level is that of consciousness as a quantum phenomenon, while the classical physical world consists merely of evocative symbols of a deeper reality.Order "Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature" on Amazon: amazon.com/Irreducible-Consciousness-Computers-Human-Nature/dp/1803415096#00:00 Intro 02:15 Announcing Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature 03:28 Core Message of Irreducible 05:23 Bernardo Kastrup on Irreducible 13:17 Introduction at ASML by Hans Busstra 18:55 Interview with Federico at ASML 21:37 When did you realize consciousness cannot be computed? 25:43 On the distinction between intelligence and consciousness 36:04 Federico's theory in relation to The Matrix 37:35 You have to start with consciousness and free will as postulates 42:42 Are emotions a product of consciousness? 43:30 What about a person who is brain-dead? 47:54 Federico on the fact that his theory is speculative but needed 49:24 On the order of consciousness, life, computers, human nature 50:57 The universe wants to know itself 52:37 Quantum theory and pre-modern intuitions 53:55 The evolution of life is cycle of meaning to symbolCopyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
What happens to consciousness when clocks stop? | Bernard Carr & Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2024-05-19 | Hans Busstra sat down with Bernard Carr and Bernardo Kastrup to discuss all presentations given at our 'Time and Mind' conference and elaborate further on their own ideas. For instance, both Carr and Kastrup agree that, if you take an idealist perspective, you need multiple time dimensions to account for the decomposition problem: the mechanism by which consciousness with a big ‘C’ resolves itself into consciousness with a small ‘c’. I. Bernard Carr and Bernardo Kastrup discussing their own views: 00:00 Intro 04:06 Opening 09:42 Bernard Carr on the bridge between physics an psi phenomena 10:50 Scientists don't like mystics and mystics don't like scientists... 11:26 Is the paranormal compatible with Einstein's Block Universe? 19:01 On physicists understanding of time25:35 What is the relationship between time and mind? 28:18 Bernardo on the three different metaphysical interpretations of time 32:52 Levels of 'selves' 36:21 No philosopher seems to talk about the specious present... 37:32 Einsteins Block Universe38:56 On Einstein calling the passage of time a stubborn illusion... 40:52 On the importance of careful language 43:16 How a multi-dimensional time model can explain different identities 52:10 On models and reality 54:20 Time in General Relativity 58:15 Time in Quantum Theory 59:21 Lee Smolin's understanding of time 1:00:38 The role of time in different branches of Quantum Theory 1:01:54 Is time fundamental, asked to Bernard Carr. II. Bernard Carr and Bernardo Kastrup discussing the conference presentations: 1:02:34 On Lee Smolin's 'presentism' 1:08:31 On George Ellis' presentation: There is no way a physical block universe can have come into existence: the future not yet determined! 1:15:05 On Lee Smolin's presentation: The role of qualia in temporal naturalism 1:22:16 On Bernard Carr's own presentation: Making space for time and consciousness in physics 1:26:26 On Kip Thorne's ideas 1:30:39 Bernardo on the undeniability of parapsychological phenomena 1:33:10 On Jonathan Schooler's presentation: Could postulating three dimension of time address assorted disparities between physics and experience? 1:38:38 The Specious Present 1:38:54 On Marc Wittman's presentation: Subjective time during ordinary and altered states of consciousness 1:47:21 On Alex Gomez Marin's presentation: The consciousness of neuroscience 1:52:53 On Paul Davies's presentation: The muddlescape of time 1:59:51 On Julia Mossbridge's presentation: How do precognition and other perceptual anomalies shed light on models of consciousness, unconsciousness and time? 2:25:21 Closing remarksYou can watch all the presentations referred to in this conversation in full length here: On George Ellis - There is no way a physical block universe can have come into existence: the future not yet determined! youtube.com/watch?v=2Bnktj5_o6M&t=950sLee Smolin - The role of qualia in temporal naturalism youtube.com/watch?v=2Bnktj5_o6M&t=3274sBernard Carr - Making space for time and consciousness in physics youtube.com/watch?v=2Bnktj5_o6M&t=5326sJonathan Schooler - Could postulating three dimension of time address assorted disparities between physics and experience? youtube.com/watch?v=2Bnktj5_o6M&t=7331sMarc Wittman's - Subjective time during ordinary and altered states of consciousness youtube.com/watch?v=atKCgbAOPhQ&t=1035sAlex Gomez Marin - The consciousness of neuroscienceyoutube.com/watch?v=atKCgbAOPhQ&t=3197sPaul Davies - The muddlescape of time youtube.com/watch?v=atKCgbAOPhQ&t=5655sJulia Mossbridge's - How do precognition and other perceptual anomalies shed light on models of consciousness, unconsciousness and time? youtube.com/watch?v=atKCgbAOPhQ&t=8103sBernard Carr's essay "Higher Dimensions of Consiousness": essentiafoundation.org/how-hyper-dimensional-spacetime-may-explain-individual-identity/readingCredits for intro edit footageAmadeus, Miloš Forman (1984, Warner Bros)Interstellar, Christopher Nolan (2014, Paramount Pictures)The art of precision | Jaeger-LeCoultre: youtube.com/watch?v=U4BdhuvZiugSpacetime by Michael Murphy: youtube.com/watch?v=bygjCPH55aYNeil de Grasse Tyson explaining the Tesseract in Interstellar: youtube.com/watch?v=5yQhiJjSWYk&t=15sLet there be life by Melody Sheep: youtube.com/watch?v=iNSa8oq4vYQPlaying with Time by Macro Room: youtube.com/watch?v=gooWdc6kb80Amazing Mosaic Zoom out: youtube.com/watch?v=UWYNTkyUJS0Beautiful art images: The Metaphysical Mirror: youtube.com/watch?v=9cOdyJDDUB0Copyright © 2023-2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
What If Science Took The Paranormal Seriously? | The Superhumanities | Prof. Jeffrey Kripal PhD Essentia Foundation 2024-04-28 | Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra interviews Prof. Jeffrey Kripal, PhD, who holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in Houston, on his new book: ‘The Superhumanities, Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities.’What if the humanities would open their horizon to more metaphysical possibilities? Prof. Kripal has written a book about a future in which the humanities study the full human. In these superhumanities, the weird, the psi—in short, the impossible—is taken seriously metaphysically: anomalous phenomena are not only regarded as subjective truths, but also as objective claims about reality.In his book, Prof. Kripal clearly shows how the nineteenth century ontology of materialism reigns in almost all of the humanities, which limits our scientific understanding of who we are as humans: there is no transcendence, the individual is nothing but a social body in spacetime, shaped by society. As Prof. Kripal likes to quip: “if there is one dogma in the humanities, it is that the truth has to be depressing.” The humanities need to expand beyond this depressing view, not because it’s depressing, but because it’s simply a half truth. We are conditioned social animals and transcendent beings. We are human and superhuman, as he argues. Interestingly, the superhumanities can build on the same foundational thinkers as the humanities. When we read the full Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, or Jacques Derrida, for instance, we see that these thinkers very much acknowledged the super. It is only the postmodern reading of their texts in academia that filters out the ecstatic. When it comes to Nietzsche, Prof. Kripal convincingly argues that the ‘crazy’ Nietzsche was perhaps the real Nietzsche, at the pinnacle of his thought. But here’s the thing: did he think his way to the vision of the Übermensch—which later unjustly got contaminated by fascism—or did he somehow receive it as a vision? According to Prof. Kripal, Nietzsche's vision should be taken much more literally than we now take it: he was talking about an actual superspecies, with superhuman capabilities. What if the humanities could scientifically investigate what happened when, for instance, Nikola Tesla had the visions that led to groundbreaking inventions? What happened when Einstein saw the principles of general relativity in a dream? Perhaps the key takeaway from Prof. Kripal's book is that, if the humanities would only dare to turn into the superhumanities, they would again become relevant for the other disciplines in academia.00:00 Intro 06:49 The humanities only focus on Clark Kent... 08:45 The humanities reduce everything to society 10:53 The humanities are not aware of ontology 12:11 The humanities have to catch up with physics 13:25 What exactly is the 'super' in the super humanities? 15:31 The precognitive dreams of Schopenhauer 18:01 How is Nietzsche read in the humanities and how should we read it? 21:51 How 'super' was Nietzsche's Übermensch vision? 23:51 If you actually read Nietzsche not just about him... 26:58 God has to die so super humans can live 28:23 How the Superhuman has been kept alive in many traditions 30:27 How can the humanities deny empirical evidence in favor of the Super? 32:05 X-Men is true! 35:01 Are you opening the door to literal readings of religious stories? 39:39 On the miracles Ram Dass described 41:46 The ontology of William James 44:48 The pragmatist vs metaphysical William James 50:06 Jeffrey's critique on metaphysical 'agnosticism' 54:26 The immunological response of the humanities 1:00:53 The human as 2 1:05:09 Jung on UAP's 1:09:21 We need a story that unites us 1:12:43 Kripal's take on Foucault 1:15:17 What was Foucault's ontology? 1:17:27 The study of religion nowadays is only about the horizontal 1:19:28 On decolonizing reality 1:22:15 On the Afro pessimism movement 1:24:18 A day in college in the Superhumanities 1:26:33 The super humanities are very much alive outside of academia 1:29:03 Science should stay science 1:30:42 On Donald Hoffman 1:32:09 On the tyranny of clarity 1:35:36 On becoming AND studying the Superhuman 1:37:27 Integration of these experiences are NOT possible :) 1:46:56 Closing remarks on the lava and the rock... Essentia makes use of film fragments and YouTube content under YouTube's fair use policy. All music is under paid license from Soundstripe.AI transparency: for our thumbnails we use Midjourney to create visuals and cinematic angles on still images of our interviewees. All is in accordance with our interviewees.Copyright © 2024 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Kabbalah & Physics: The Amazing Parallels! Essentia Foundation 2024-04-06 | In this interview, Natalia Vorontsova discusses consciousness and science from the perspective of Kabbalistic Panpsychism with Prof. Dr. Hyman Schipper. The parallels between quantum physics and the ancient Kabbalah are astonishing. Having studied the Kabbalah for many years, Dr Schipper also explains how this knowledge is applicable to many areas of thought and how it has impacted his life. It's a frank and heart-warming conversation.This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.00:00:00 Intro: Kabbalistic insights and contemporary science00:04:42 Kaballah: a personal story00:07:34 What is Kabbalah actually?00:09:54 The Origins of Kaballah00:12:40 Ancient Kabbalah vs. Quantum Physics00:14:05 Kabbalistic theology00:15:47 Kabbalah: fundamental principles00:18:30 Is Kabbalah a science?00:22:50 The cosmology of Kabbalah00:40:57 Interinclusion: fractal and holographic design of the cosmos00:47:53 Interpenetration and quantum entanglement00:56:07 Paradox of hierarchy and unity00:57:44 Light and darkness00:59:19 Kabbalistic Panpsychic ontology or how God runs the universe01:07:25 The blueprint for the creation or 'shattering the vessels'01:09:21 Kabbalistic Panpsychist domains and the 'spark of God'01:16:09 The 'Unknowable Head', Heisenberg's uncertainty principle & free will01:25:14 Kabbalah and ontic paradoxes01:29:00 Kabbalah, Cosmopsychism & Psi phenomena01:34:30 The book: Kabbalistic Panpsychism01:35:00 The Big Bang cosmology and Kabbalah01:39:18 Consciousness: what can we measure and study?01:44:47 Science & its soul?01:48:25 Is Divine Mind corroborated by science?01:50:57 Kabbalah: personal impact01:56:40 The future of science, advice to young scientistsCopyright © 2024 Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Going Beyond Einstein: Linking Time And Consciousness Essentia Foundation 2024-03-23 | This is day 2 of Essentia’s Time and Mind conference, our scientific discussion of the profound mystery of the passage of time and how it relates to consciousness. Many physicists maintain that the passage of time is purely a feature of mind, beyond physics itself, while others argue that it points to some new physical paradigm, perhaps associated with the marriage of relativity theory and quantum theory. Certainly, the status of time in any final theory of physics remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that a theory that encompasses time and mind will have to go beyond Einstein’s Block Universe. The possibility that physics may eventually accommodate and elucidate the nature of consciousness and associated experience suggests the need to address issues that are currently viewed as being on the borders of physics and philosophy. It also impinges on developments in neurophysics, cognitive science and psychology. So this is an interdisciplinary problem and this conference brings together experts in all the relevant fields. There are contributions from the physicists Bernard Carr, Paul Davies, George Ellis and Lee Smolin, the neurophysicist Alex Gomez-Marin, the cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, and the psychologists Jonathan Schooler and Marc Wittmann.Although the conference is organized by Essentia Foundation—which is associated with the philosophical tradition of Idealism—it covered a wide range of approaches. Our vision is to cover topics that are relevant to Idealism, but not to exclude alternative views from the conference.Timestamps: 00:00 General introduction06:11 Bernard Carr- Conference introduction 17:15 Marc Wittmann - Subjective time during ordinary and altered states of consciousness53:17 Alex Gómez-Marin - The consciousness of neuroscience1:34:15 Paul Davies - The muddlescape of time2:15:03 Julia Mossbridge - How do precognition and other perceptual anomalies shed light on models of consciousness, unconsciousness and time?2:54:04 Panel discussion and wrap upBernard J. Carr PhD, is the host and co-organiser of this conference. He is Professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)Marc Wittmann PhD, is a research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg. Alex Gómez-Marin PhD, is researcher at the Human Cognition and Behavior Scientific Program at the Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH) in Alicante. Paul Davies PhD, is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University.Julia Mossbridge PhD, is visiting scholar in the Psychology Department at Northwestern University and Associated Professor in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. With the exception of archival footage under fair-use policy, all rights are reserved.
Time & Mind: Was Einstein Wrong About Time? Essentia Foundation 2024-02-11 | The role of time in mainstream physics—as it arises in Newtonian theory, relativity theory, quantum theory, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics—is relatively well understood. However, there is a profound mystery concerning the passage of time associated with consciousness. Many physicists maintain that this passage is purely a feature of mind, going beyond physics itself, while others argue that it points to some new physical paradigm, perhaps associated with the marriage of relativity theory and quantum theory. Certainly, the status of time in any final theory of physics remains unclear.The possibility that physics may eventually accommodate and elucidate the nature of consciousness and associated experience suggests the need to address issues that are currently viewed as being on the borders of physics and philosophy. It also impinges on developments in neurophysics, cognitive science and psychology. So this is an interdisciplinary problem and this conference brings together experts in all the relevant fields. There are contributions from the physicists Bernard Carr, Paul Davies, George Ellis and Lee Smolin, the neurophysicist Alex Gomez-Marin, the cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, and the psychologists Jonathan Schooler and Marc Wittmann.Although the conference is organized by Essentia Foundation—which is associated with the philosophical tradition of Idealism—it covered a wide range of approaches. Our vision is to cover topics that are relevant to Idealism, but not to exclude alternative views from the conference.Timestamps00:00 Brief overview04:20 Bernard Carr - Introduction talk 15:50 George Ellis - There is no way a physical block universe can have come into existence: the future not yet determined! 54:34 Lee Smolin - The role of qualia in temporal naturalism1:28:46 Bernard Carr - Making space for time and consciousness in physics2:02:11 Jonathan Schooler - Could postulating three dimension of time address assorted disparities between physics and experience? 2:45:15 Panel discussion Bernard J. Carr, host and co-organiser of this conference is Professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)George F. R. Ellis is emeritus Distinguished Professor of complex systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, this is the paper Ellis presented during the conference: arxiv.org/abs/2210.10107Lee Smolin is faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and adjunct Professor of physics at the University of Waterloo and a member of the graduate faculty of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. See this paper on temporal naturalism: arxiv.org/abs/1310.8539Jonathan Schooler is distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Time and Mind Conference | Bernard Carr, Opening Talks (1/8) Essentia Foundation 2024-01-14 | We begin our coverage of Essentia Foundation's 2023 work conference with host, Prof. Bernard Carr's introduction to the conference. He highlights how fundamental mind is to physics, and then elaborates on the intimate relationship between mind and time, suggesting that only a better understanding of time will allow us to make sense of individual minds. The full program of the conference can be found here:essentiafoundation.org/announcing-time-and-mind-a-free-online-conference/readingFor more information about Essentia Foundation, click here:essentiafoundation.org/about-us-2Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Bernard Carr, cosmologist and friend of Hawking, on consciousness and parapsychology Essentia Foundation 2023-12-31 | Our brains do not produce consciousness, they 'filter' it and consciousness is related to the higher dimensions in string theory. In this thought provoking conversation, distinguished Professor of mathematics and astronomy Bernard Carr explains his theory of consciousness and psi-phenomena.This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.00:00 Introduction 05:02 How did you get involved with parapsychology? 09:41 Bernard on trying to weigh a soul... 13:50 Is psychical research science? 16:03 The Enfield poltergeist claim 25:59 Are Psi phenomena real? 26:58 On the importance of true skepticism 28:55 Where are we in studying these phenomena scientifically? 34:44 Is having a scientific background a hindrance or a help when it comes to studying these phenomena? 38:55 In what sense are most scientists not 'believing' the phenomena? 43:54 On a post-materialist science 44:38 How does your notion of time relate to psi phenomena? 53:16 What is the relationship between time and consciousness? 1:01:10 Is time real?1:04:20 What is the 'specious present'? 1:06:38 You might argue planet Earth is conscious1:09:16 On the experience of time when falling 1:11:56 When the specious present seems to expand 1:15:51 How does the concept of the specious present explain certain psychic phenomena? 1:19:11 Natalia on the slowing down of time when falling off a mountain 1:23:17 Bernard on the movies Inception and Interstellar1:24:44 Is time just a dial on our dashboard of perception? 1:27:25 When you either experience an eternal now or an eternal always... 1:28:00 On experiencing the transcendence of space and time 1:30:07 How do you interact with the world when you are in a different specious present? 1:32:53 How athletes are successful due to a specious present that is slowed down 1:33:58 What if our specious present is expanding? 1:37:02 Bernards view on the fine tuning problem 1:41:11 On the multiverse1:42:47 Is there something before the Big Bang? 1:47:34 Hawking's theory about the origin of time 1:50:59 There must be a genesis of the universe, right? 1:52:06 God and the Big Bang 1:54:44 What is consciousness to you? 1:57:12 Are there actually 'laws' of physics? 2:01:32 Is a final theory possible? 2:05:08 How to fit consciousness - per definition the first-person experience - into science, which is about the third-person experience? 2:11:16 How to make a new physics that accommodates consciousness testable?Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
The NEW Worldview to explain it all | Q&A with Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2023-12-10 | Analytic Idealism is THE new worldview that can make sense of anomalous phenomena, whether it is NDE's, altered mental states or UAP's, whilst remaining 100% compatible with our current understanding of physics. In this video Hans Busstra discusses questions from viewers of our channel with Bernardo Kastrup (director of the Essentia Foundation)Physicalism offered an equilibrium for around two hundred years. But if one closely looks in the fields of neuroscience, physics and philosophy, anomalies are piling up. The only way to still entertain the idea that physicalism can make sense of unexplainable empirical phenomena—ranging from loophole-free Bell inequality tests, to altered mental states, to undeniable new evidence around Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP’s)—is to literally ‘don’t look up,’ to paraphrase the hilarious Netflix film that actually was a painfully accurate cultural critique of our times. In this Q&A Hans Busstra and Bernardo Kastrup discuss questions coming in around anomalies in the fields of NDE’s, UAP’s and fundamental physics. Though analytic idealism can’t offer clear-cut answers to most of these questions, it can—and this is a crucial difference with physicalism—in principle build testable theories around these phenomena. For instance, if nature consists of mental states, it is not unthinkable that when dissociative processes weaken—for instance, during NDE’s—that people can experience other people’s experiences. And if UAP’s in some cases seem to present themselves as mental phenomena, under idealism it doesn’t follow that they are imaginary.If we want to continue the scientific endeavour of accurately describing and predicting the behaviour of nature, we need to ‘look up’ under all circumstances; analytic idealism offers us a new telescope to do so confidently. Our YouTube channel is the place where we look through the telescope playfully, allowing ourselves to be troubled as well as excited: a revolutionary shift in science seems ahead and we want to report it to you from the forefront. 00:00 Introduction 03:54 What Essentia is up to 05:02 Entropy is in the eye of the beholder09:36 Shannon's way of looking at entropy 10:47 Maybe the universe is becoming increasingly ordered, instead of ordered 12:34 Do tables and computers have consciousness according to integrated information theory? 13:53 You don't have free will 17:15 'Could have been' is a fantasy... 18:50 Can you 'disallow' the universe to 'play' you? 23:20 How to apply 'no free will' to your life in a positive way 27:03 We are only talking about books written by men... 28:26 Lou Salomé on Nietzsche 31:53 Male versus female archetype 35:07 On transcending gender and individuation 37:26 How does music relate to time? 42:03 Bernardo on the Higgs Boson45:02 On the beauty of Eulers equation 46:08 On reading math like a partiture 48:31 Let's talk about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP's) 53:23 Physical evidence for the existence of UAP's 54:18 UAP's appear to be as much mental as physical phenomena 55:53 On how UAP's violate physics and metaphysics 1:03:23 How to make sense of the 'self' in an NDE from an idealist perspective? 1:08:46 How you can experience being someone else during an NDE--- 1:12:35 How are our experiences being reported back to mind at large when we die? 1:14:33 There are only present states in the universe 1:15:57 Are bacteria conscious? 1:18:28 A sign of metacognition is when species start acting against instinct... 1:21:05 How do you know what Nature's purpose with you is? 1:25:31 The impersonal that moves through us does not give a damn 1:28:54 How to derive an ethics from analytic idealism? 1:34:47 It is our obligation to pass moral judgment upon natureCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Does the Renaissance have roots in Islamic philosophy? Essentia Foundation 2023-11-19 | Natalia Vorontsova interviews Prof. Peter Adamson about the importance of Islamic philosophy for Western thought. Although little known in the West, philosophers such as Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) played an absolutely crucial role in preserving, building on, and transmitting to the West the wisdom of Aristotle, Plato, and the Neoplatonists during the Middle Ages. Similarly, Suhrawardī's Philosophy of Illumination and Ibn Arabī's doctrine of the Unity of Being continue to influence Western thought to this day. If we want to understand the history of European philosophy, we cannot ignore these influential scholars and sages. This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.If you would like to learn more about Islamic philosophy, you may wish to visit historyofphilosophy.net00:00 Intro00:02:07 The Renaissance and Islamic philosophy00:10:46 Perennial wisdom and translation movements00:15:39 Western thought: footnotes to Plato?00:18:09 Why did the scientific revolution take place in Europe and not in the Islamic world?00:24:52 Mathematical and mechanistic approaches to nature00:31:14 Islamic philosophy: followers of Aristotle or Plato & Neoplatonism?00:36:51 Idealism? Materialism? Something else?00:43:42 Influence of Islamic philosophy on post-classical European thought00:46:45 The metaphysics of Avicenna00:49:58 Avicenna on the mind-body problem 00:53:44 Followers of Avicenna: Suhrawardi and his metaphysics01:01:07 Suhrawardi: intuitive versus discursive philosophy01:06:32 Surhawardi: the non-dual approach01:08:52 Saladin and the fate of Suhrawardi01:13:17 Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics and Sufi philosophy01:22:23 Conclusions: the role of Islamic philosophy01:27:13 Recommended reading01:28:25 An afterthoughtCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
What Carl Jungs Most Important Book Tells Us Essentia Foundation 2023-10-29 | As part of our book club on YouTube, Hans Busstra has made a book review of ‘Answer to Job’ by Carl Gustav Jung.Interviewees: Dr. Hans van den Hooff, Jungian psychoanalyst and Bernardo Kastrup PhD, philosopher and director of the Essentia Foundation. Regarded by Jung as his most important work, Answer to Job is a tour de force in which classical Christian doctrine is turned upside down: Jung argued that the incarnation of Christ was not to redeem humanity for its sins against God, but to redeem God for his sin against Job. In the Book of Job it became clear to Jung that Yahweh, though omniscient, had not consulted his own omniscience, remaining 'unconscious' of a dark side within himself—i.e. his fallen son Satan. In the language of analytic idealism: mind at large is not meta-cognitive. In almost all of Christian theology the Book of Job is analyzed as an example of God's mysterious ways, his unfathomable masterplan for the universe. Ergo, Job suffers purposefully, but will never be able to grasp the higher divine reason of his suffering. Yet, Jung concluded exactly the opposite: Yahweh does not have a full picture, he is an amoral force of nature ‘that cannot see its own back.’ Job is morally superior to Yahweh as he does see the inner antinomy within Yahweh.According to Jung, if held up to his own standards, Yahweh had sinned against Job, and Job subtly confronted Yahweh with this fact. This made the incarnation of Christ not a story about the redemption of humanity for its sins against God, but a redemption of God for his sin against Job. To Hans Busstra, who has a Christian background, this ‘blasphemous’ analysis of Jung made a deep impact, in a positive sense. Though it is highly unlikely that the Church will ever accept Jung's reading, the new depth he saw in Christian mythology makes the tradition urgently relevant again for this day and age. Nature, God, Mind at Large becomes meta-cognitive through us, and this makes the human experience of crucial importance in our universe. 00:00 Intro 01:21 Did Jung believe in God? 03:33 Jung predicted the rise of the Nazi's through studying the unconscious 05:28 Brief summary of the Book of Job 07:09 God's unsatisfying answer to Job 10:31 The interaction between the Ego and the Self 13:33 God has no morality 17:59 The seminal importance of Job's interaction with Yahweh 18:59 Jesus died for God's sins... 22:42 God's dark side and the incongruity in Christianity 26:54 The clinical take-away from Answer to Job 29:47 What it means to Hans personally 32:15 The importance of Answer to Job according to Bernardo Kastrup 34:14 How Jung vindicate his father through this book 35:39 This is the book that can save Christianity! 37:12 What does Jung mean when he talks about Yahweh? 38:09 How Job made Yahweh more conscious 41:13 Satan, Yahweh and the work of Hegel 43:03 The evolution of Satan 44:31 On the feminine side of God: Sophia,Wisdom 51:02 The male versus the female archetype when it comes to God 54:24 The importance of Answer to Job to this day and age 1:00:20 Jung's idealist metaphysics 1:02:25 Closing remarks: how this book can save ChristianityCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Essentia Foundations Origin Story Essentia Foundation 2023-10-08 | The Essentia Foundation's origin story is the story of Dutch entrepreneur and humanitarian Fred Matser meeting philosopher Bernardo Kastrup. In this video, Hans Busstra narrates how the meeting of these two men stands for the connection between heart and mind. For Fred Matser, embracing the worldview of idealism has always been a journey of the heart: through profound transcendent experience he came to the insight that reality is fundamentally mental and unitary. When Fred met Bernardo Kastrup a decade ago, he immediately recognized that Bernardo had exactly the same worldview, but had arrived at it from the other direction: via the mind. He convinced Bernardo Kastrup to quit a flourishing career in high-tech to lead the Essentia Foundation. The friendship between Fred and Bernardo symbolises what the Essentia Foundation stands for: heart and mind can fully connect, without compromise. Idealism is a worldview that honors human intuition as presented in religious and philosophical traditions worldwide (the heart), as well as human rationality, on which science builds. As the latter is mistakenly associated with materialism, the Essentia Foundation specifically focuses on analytic idealism. It was due to the wisdom of the heart, namely Fred Matser's insight that the world needs a scientific platform bringing together metaphysical idealists, that the Essentia Foundation was born.Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Find MORE Meaning WITHOUT Free Will! | Bernardo Kastrup Explains Essentia Foundation 2023-10-01 | We usually think that it is free will that gives meaning to life, but what if exactly the opposite is true, that the fact that we don't have free will makes life meaningful? A couple of weeks ago Bernardo Kastrup, the executive director of the Essentia Foundation, wrote an essay (essentiafoundation.org/the-red-herring-of-free-will-in-objective-idealism/reading) arguing that, under objective idealism, the whole convulsiveness around free will is a meaningless red herring. In his opinion, the free will vs determinism debate misses the point, because fundamentally there is no distinction between nature’s will and what nature is necessitated to do. In other words: what we assume to be free will is, on a universal level, exactly the same as determinism. In this video ,Hans Busstra sits down with Bernardo Kastrup to discuss this line of reasoning while also trying to make it personal: why do we want free will so badly on a psychological level? Why, as a culture, do we usually associate determinism with nihilism and meaninglessness? The conversation covers Laplace’s Demon, computational irreducibility, and works towards Kastrup's main point: if you can accept that, on a personal level, you don't have free will, you realize that you are being ‘played’ by a universe that—due to computational irreducibility—cannot 'see' where it's going before it goes. Instead of suffering as an effect of 'bad' free will decisions by human agents, suffering becomes part of the inevitable evolution of the universe.00:00 Introduction 04:33 Why do we want free will so badly? 07:33 Laplace's Demon09:09 Bernardo explaining computational irreducibility 13:22 Is there a GRAND algorithm? Bernardo on randomness... 16:17 Wa cannot NOT be what we are, therefore in a sense we are fully determined... 17:40 If we truly had free will we would be completely happy 24:04 On compatabilism, the idea that free will is somehow an emergent phenomenon 26:12 Does free will have a function, evolutionary? 32:10 On B.F.Skinner and behaviorism 35:14 How Silicon Valley likes the idea of no free will to nudge our behaviour 38:09 To model a human mind, you need to model the whole universe 38:45 On strong emergence 41:30 We are addicted to free will thinking45:29 Is your life like a movie that you watch?48:21 On the WILL of the universe according to Schopenhauer 51:30 If desire and necessity are the same thing, the concept of free will becomes meaningless 53:41 Can the universe WILL something completely else, that would change the regularities we see in nature? 56:03 If we would go back to the initial state, would we end up with the same universe? 57:33 Hans still wants a little bit of free will 59:53 Bernardo on the result orientedness of society 1:02:00 But what if I kick you Bernardo? On moral responsibility1:06:28 On the ethical implications and Daniel Dennet's plea to stop telling people they don't have free will 1:07:31 Why nihilism is the wrong conclusion 1:08:46 If we would consider ourselves as chips in a computer 1:11:10 We DO have moral responsibility1:12:52 Our suffering is valuable input for the universe 1:14:58 The two habits of thinking that obscure us 1:18:04 Conclusion by Bernardo, quoting Fred Matser: life is about being played by the universeFilms fragments as quoted in this video, in order of appearance (as a non-profit, Essentia Foundation uses fragments like these, as is common in YouTube edits, under fair use provisions; but if copyright holders do not agree, please let us know):I Origins (2014)Cast Away (2000)Into the Wild (2007)The Pursuit Of Happyness (2006)Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
10 ESSENTIAL reads with Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2023-09-17 | Read these 10 books and it will be very hard to still believe in a fundamentally physical universe. Essentia is starting its own book club on YouTube! In a series of videos, we will discuss 20th-century must reads by authors like Carl Gustav Jung, Noam Chomsky and Thomas Kuhn, to seminal work by idealists such as Schopenhauer. And, of course, we will pay tribute to foundational ancients texts as discussed by, for instance, Peter Kingsley and Patrick Harpur. As a starter, Hans Busstra asked Bernardo Kastrup to pick 10 books from his own shelf that most influenced his philosophical work. In this video, Bernardo briefly runs through the main ideas put forward in these books and how they changed his life. In the upcoming videos, Hans will do the homework by reading and reviewing these 10 books. You are, of course, invited to read along and send in your own insights and questions (please do so via our YouTube community page: youtube.com/@essentiafoundation/community). The first book to be discussed after this video will be ‘Answer to Job,’ by Carl Gustav Jung. 00:00 Introduction 01:50 #1 Answer to Job - Carl Gustav Jung 07:25 #2 On the Nature of the Psyche - Carl Gustav Jung 14:28 #3 Saving the Appearances - Owen Barfield 20:03 #4 The Philosophers' Secret Fire - Patrick Harpur 24:38 #5 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S. Kuhn 32:00 #6 The Sense of the World - Adrés Ortiz-Osés 34:30 #7 Language and Mind - Noam Chomsky 42:53 #8 Passport to Magonia - Jacques Vallée 44:48 #9 The World as Will and Representation - Arthur Schopenhauer 54:18 #10 Reality - Peter KingsleyCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
10K subscribers! A Q&A with Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2023-09-03 | We've hit 10K subscribers to our channel, thanks so much! As a small thank you, in this video we discuss your questions with the director of Essentia Foundation, Bernardo Kastrup. It gets pretty wild as the conversation will range from the consciousness of bacteria, to our minds being 'time traveling machines,' to Hans asking Bernardo if Eve performed the first quantum measurement when she ate the apple. Also: why is meditation, literally speaking, an egoistic thing to do? Did Job suffer more than Jesus? And, this one is personal for Bernardo: what is the real danger of idealism if life hits you really hard?We've added plenty of chapter marks so you can find the stuff you like. Thanks so much for watching and subscribing and the next stop is 100k! 00:00 Start00:34 Introduction 01:54 Bernardo Kastrup on his work as a philosopher and as director of the Essentia Foundation 02:33 Essentia's mission statement04:34 Hans Busstra on his position 05:02 What about Bernardo's Daimon? 06:04 How does the Daimon go about?09:39 How does Bernardo's philosophy handle the Schrödingers cat scenario? 15:58 Can we know mind at large? 18:36 Near death experiences impair dissociation19:19 Bernardo on being stuck in his hard head 21:40 Mind at large from a pan-psychist point of view23:20 Can you 'feel' idealism as being real? 23:48 Panpsychism says your fist is conscious 26:13 Is the Amazon river conscious? 27:40 Isn't panpsychism a form of dualism? 31:17 Is the quantum field mind at large? 31:54 No one has ever seen an electron? 33:03 Science operates on convenient fictions 35:19 What is meta-cognition and why is it dependent on brains and more broadly on metabolism? 38:33 Could a table or the sun be meta cognitive?41:14 Are stars conscious? 43:15 Can the universe 'build' on its own dreams or nightmares? 49:31 Can the universe become metacognitive? 50:08 How is human memory stored in the universe? 53:58 How worms when you cut off their head can still remember stuff 57:52 Could memory be stored in electromagnetic fields? 1:00:12 All physical states in nature are present states1:01:23 Do we literally bring the past into presence when we recall a memory? 1:04:05 The Alan Watts metaphor that explains the problem of our thinking in terms of causality1:07:04 Can our minds literally travel back in time? 1:07:27 Why memories are not reliable1:09:21 Spacetime is doomed 1:10:49 If the brain were a computer could it store all our memories? 1:13:06 How to account for precognition? 1:15:52 Scientific studies indicating forms of precognition 1:17:02 On the phenomenon of retro causation 1:18:14 On the story of Genesis1:22:18 God is not metacognitive 1:22:59 Metacognition lets you access worlds in your own mind 1:23:52 Do you apply morality to the Genesis story? 1:25:01 Did Eve perform the first quantum measurement by eating the apple? 1:28:09 Our longing back to Eden, the state before we became metacognitive... 1:29:46 On our non-heroic suffering as humans... 1:31:58 Who suffered more, Job or Christ? 1:32:57 Job put a mirror in front of God 1:34:41 How through Christianity the notion of sacrifice enters Western thinking 1:36:39 Why you will suffer less if you know how to suffer 1:38:10 Bernardo talks openly about the 30 minutes in which he wanted to end his life. 1:40:11 The danger of idealism 1:41:53 How suffering from tinnitus led Bernardo to become the director the Essentia Foundation 1:47:03 What are you proud of, now Essentia is three years old? 1:47:56 What are the two major breakthroughs we will see in the next two decades? 1:52:40 Are bacteria conscious? 1:59:22 We hide bullshit behind complexity2:01:26 We may never have the capabilities to simulate a single bacterium from first principles 2:04:33 Becoming metacognitive is to fall from Eden 2:05:57 Why monkeys didn't start domesticating and riding goats to then chase the bad guys 2:07:38 Does nature have a sense of being? 2:09:09 The benefit and price of metaconsciousness 2:10:52 The race between egotism and the realization that life is sacrificial determines the future of humanity 2:12:19 On the popular resurgence of Stoicism and the meaning of life2:14:18 The 10K subscriber cake! Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
Deep Dive Into The Philosophy of Psychedelics Essentia Foundation 2023-07-30 | Are mystical type, or 'metaphysical experiences' induced by psychedelics 'real,' or are they hallucinations? This question is now becoming urgent in psychiatry as psychedelic therapy is worldwide gaining acceptance as a potent way to improve mental health, from depression and anxiety to ADHD and autism. From a physicalist perspective, this raises an ethical dilemma: what if patients ascribe positive outcomes to a change in metaphysical beliefs? For instance, that after a psychedelic trip they become convinced that there is life after death, or a mind at large? And what if—as studies show—exactly this metaphysical shift makes them feel better? Did the psychedelic therapist then provide a 'comforting delusion' to cure patients? As Jussi Jylkkä, PhD, argues, solving the 'comforting delusion objection' from a physicalist framework is incoherent. In a video essay style, Hans Busstra tries to comprehend the current debate and, by sharing Jylkkä's insights, to serve an 'idealist dish' on the metaphysical menu for interpreting the psychedelic experience. The core idea set forth is: psychedelics induce a 'model collapse' and, when argued consequently, this undermines a physicalist metaphysics. An idealist interpretation of the psychedelic experience is much more coherent and satisfactory. 00:05 Intro: visiting the International Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR 2022)01:14 The scientific definition of psychedelics 01:57 Psychedelics cause a change in metaphysical beliefs03:15 Metaphysics is entering psychiatry04:47 On the need to be metaphysically agnostic05:14 We need a metaphysical menu06:48 Cooking an idealist dish07:58 A brief history of psychedelic discourse09:40 Overview of the classic literature (almost all idealist!)10:38 The Doors of Perceptions (Huxley)11:18 The Psychedelic Experience (Alpert, Leary) 12:06 The Psychedelic Explorers Guide (Fadiman)12:35 An idealist interpretation of the psychedelic experience16:13 'Naturalism' as proposed by Chris Letheby18:33 Jussi Jylkkä on the comforting delusion objection19:36 The comforting delusion explained 22:31 Scientistic Naturalism opposed to Real Naturalism 26:03 Our models limit our experience on reality27:39 Alison Gopnik on the psychedelic experience as the 'baby state'28:26 Why have we evolved into beings relying on models? 33:02 Terrence McKenna on boundary dissolution, now empirically established35:02 Can you gain veridical knowledge in the psychedelic state? 37:53 Trying to understand the comforting delusion objection39:23 Huxley's prism metaphor42:21 Models collapse: and that also goes for science! (the hard problem then is a non-problem!)46:40 Letheby is mistaken, we have to let go of our fictions48:14 The phenomenological 'turn' to solve the problem within a physicalist framework 52:04 We can know nature by being part of nature: on the role of psychedelics54:21 Closing remark: model collapse a good thing for humanityFor more information on the ICPR conference visit: icpr-conference.comCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Consciousness beyond death, with Dr. Pim van Lommel Essentia Foundation 2023-07-23 | Accurately subtitled in English, Russian and Spanish (pick your CC language in the settings)Cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel became internationally known after his ground-breaking study on NDEs (Near Death Experiences) was published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, in 2001. The study was remarkable in that it was a prospective one: conditions were set and ready before patients underwent cardiac arrest. The results showed that merely physiological explanations for the NDEs were inadequate, thereby raising profound questions about the nature of consciousness and its relation to brain function. In this in-depth interview, Essentia Foundation's Natalia Vorontsova discusses the philosophical implications of these findings with Dr. van Lommel, at his house in the Netherlands.This video has human-created English, Spanish and Russian subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button and Settings icon below the video to enable them.00:00 Intro00:03:25 Involvement with NDE research00:07:55 Perceptual change 00:09:45 Possible root causes00:25:05 Explain unexplainable00:28:58 A man who lost his dentures00:34:08 What about science?00:37:11 Consciousness and body00:46:03 Science and subjective experience00:49:37 Science and non-local consciousness00:53:53 Paradigm shift00:56:38 Personal impact00:58:57 Personal insightsCopyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
The dizzying free fall of QBism Essentia Foundation 2023-06-25 | In conversation with Prof. Christopher A. Fuchs, Essentia Foundation's Hans Busstra explores QBism: an interpretation of quantum mechanics that puts the agent right at the centre. QBism regards quantum theory as just a ‘tool’ agents use and disclaims ontic interpretations of Schrödinger's wave function: the quantum state is not something ‘real,' but instead just our description of, or even our beliefs about, nature. Once known as Quantum Bayesianism, Fuchs has redefined QBism more radically as: 'Quantum Bettabilitarianism.' As agents, we make ‘bets’ on the behavior of the universe in its interactions with us. Though QBism does not equal analytical idealism, in this conversation we touch upon a striking similarity: namely, that pure experience (i.e. phenomenal consciousness) is what quantum theory points to as fundamental in nature. And this, in turn, has implications for how we look upon the meaning of life. In Fuchs' words: quantum theory gives meaning to life.00:00 Introduction 01:30 Some opening remarks on experience and 'nature striking back' 04:27 Chris Fuchs on the definition of QBism 05:12 Was Copernicus wrong? Why QBism is a free fall06:46 On Cubism in art and QBism in quantum theory09:24 The metaphysical debate within quantum mechanics11:04 What is QBism? 14:23 We bet on the behavior of the universe with us 15:51 What is an agent, an observer, a decision maker? 16:53 Quantum theory is just a manual that agents use 18:10 Chris Fuchs on his mentor John Wheeler 20:24 The participatory universe 20:57 The broken glass between observer and observed 21:50 There is no physical reality prior to measurement22:18 Back in the quantum museum...23:37 Chris Fuchs on the different interpretations of the wave function 25:02 Agents perform 'actions': measurement is a term we shouldn't use anymore26:29 Must an electron 'obey' our gambles on it?27:36 The multiverse is a dead universe 30:05 The many worlds interpretation wants to uphold determinism 32:03 Genuine novelty comes into the world, the universe is being created on the fly 33:02 From the abstract to the concrete: QBism in practice 38:16 Is QBism doing best in progressing quantum physics? 41:47 The solipsist critique: how to account for a shared world? 44:33 Order in the universe is placed there by us, by the human mind 45:38 What is the ontology of QBism?47:24 The stuff of the world is neither mind nor matter 50:21 QBism in relationship to analytical idealism 53:06 Can quantum mechanics tell us something about the meaning of life? 58:09 A personal conclusion of the interviewerFor more video's on QBism here's a playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKcJJ1R6Ypwg2NPmtNc_XgHyN2LtF0pnd or check Chris Fuchs' own channel: youtube.com/channel/UCuokFP9QsjtvAzdHt9VVJKwThumbnail inspiration image: Vecteezy.com
Panel discussion, the physics of first-person perspective (day 2) Essentia Foundation 2023-05-21 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.This video is the record of the Q&A session at the end of the conference's second and last day. The participants discuss whether there are objective physical laws out there in nature, whether the double-slit and similar experiments capture the essence of quantum mechanics, whether the scientific method demands inter-subjective confirmation, and what constitutes an observing agent under Quantum Bayesianism.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Why interference phenomena do not capture the essence of quantum theory, with Dr. Lorenzo Catani Essentia Foundation 2023-05-07 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Dr. Lorenzo Catani argues that interference phenomena, such as observed in the famous double-slit experiment, in fact do not capture the essence of quantum theory.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
There are no physical laws in the world, with Dr. Daniele Oriti Essentia Foundation 2023-04-16 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this, one of the most intriguing presentations of the conference, Dr. Daniele Oriti, from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, defends the view that physical laws are epistemic in nature, having no independent ontological status.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Does science need intersubjectivity? By Dr. Emily Adlam Essentia Foundation 2023-04-09 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Dr. Emily Adlam discusses the problem of confirmation in orthodox interpretations of quantum mechanics.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Quantum Bayesianism and the embodied agent Essentia Foundation 2023-03-12 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Dr. Jacques Pienaar discusses the notion of an embodied agent in the context of Quantum Bayesianism ('QBism,' for short). QBism is an interpretation of quantum mechanics according to which the wave function represents simply what we know about reality—a kind of betting strategy about what we will see next—as opposed to reality itself.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Panel discussion, the physics of first-person perspective (day 1) Essentia Foundation 2023-02-26 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.This video contains the panel discussion at the end of the conference's first day. The participants are Markus Müller, Caslav Brukner, Nuryia Nurgalieva and Eric Cavalcanti.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Thought experiments on a quantum computer, with Nuriya Nurgalieva Essentia Foundation 2023-02-12 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Nuriya Nurgalieva, M.Sc., discusses the ontological implications of thought experiments on a quantum computer.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
What is it like to be Wigners friend? By Dr. Caslav Brukner Essentia Foundation 2023-01-29 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Prof. Caslav Brukner, PhD, also from the IQOQI-Vienna, discusses what it may be like to be Wigner's friend, the famous character of an important thought experiment in foundations of quantum entanglement.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Experimental metaphysics with first-person perspectives, by Dr. Eric Cavalcanti Essentia Foundation 2023-01-22 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers.In this presentation, Dr. Eric Cavalcanti, from Griffith University Center for Quantum Dynamics, discusses experimental metaphysics with first-person perspectives.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
The physics of first-person perspective: an introduction by Dr. Markus Müller Essentia Foundation 2023-01-15 | The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went to scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our understanding of the nature of reality, and so Essentia Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (home to Prof. Anton Zeilinger, one of 2022's Nobel Laureates in physics), organized a conference discussing the implications of this result. The conference was hosted by IQOQI-Vienna’s Dr. Markus Müller and featured seven other speakers. In this first video, Dr. Müller introduces the theme of the conference and explains its relevance.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Consciousness Beyond Brain Function | Neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander Essentia Foundation 2022-12-25 | On this Christmas day, when many of us think of departed loved ones, we have a holiday special for you: A frank conversation with neurosurgeon and near-death experiencer Dr. Eben Alexander, on the survival of consciousness beyond brain function.Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
Quantum physics and the first-person perspective, an introduction to the conference Essentia Foundation 2022-12-11 | Here is a post-conference conversation among the organizers of the "Physics of first-person perspective" conference, 2022, produced in a collaboration between Essentia Foundation and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna (IQOQI-Vienna), of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Although this conversation took place just after the conference, it serves as a tantalizing introduction to the themes discussed. Videos of the conference's presentations will be available on this channel in the course of the next weeks.For more information on the IQOQI-Vienna: https://www.iqoqi-vienna.at/For more information on Essentia Foundation: essentiafoundation.org/about-us-2Chapters:00:00 Highlights01:53 Intro03:18 Quantum physics and the first person perspective05:00 Anton Zeilinger and where the field of quantum mechanics stands 08:18 End of the shut up and calculate era?09:58 "What do physicists say after two glasses of wine? 11:54 What is a measurement and what constitutes an observer?13:11 Key insights from the conference16:16 The importance of being metaphysically agnostic17:43 No go theorems instead of metaphysics19:28 Is the field progressing?22:39 Bernardo on Rovelli's relational interpretation of quantum mechanics 29:14 What is Marks Müllers theoretical departure point?32:28 The only metaphysically neutral question is: what will I see next? 35:02 On Wigners Friend37:57 No go theorems on the basis of Wigners Friend 39:39 Isn't quantum theory simply incomplete or wrong?41:30 Quantum theory is only weird when you assume physical states are fundamental 47:24 What could a real life Wigners Friend experiment tell us philosophically? 49:48 How are measurements 'synced'? How to avoid solipsism?54:57 The world is a less intuitive place then we think...Copyright © 2022 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.essentiafoundation.org
What is the world really like? Essentia Foundation 2022-11-27 | Trailer of Essentia Foundation's and Keytoe Academy's joint course on analytic idealism and its implications.
Summary and closing | dr. Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2022-11-27 | Part 11 of Essentia Foundation's and Keytoe Academy's joint course on analytic idealism and its implications.
Analytic Idealism on free will | dr. Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2022-11-27 | Part 10 of Essentia Foundation's and Keytoe Academy's joint course on analytic idealism and its implications.
AI and producing consciousness | dr. Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2022-11-27 | Part 9 of Essentia Foundation's and Keytoe Academy's joint course on analytic idealism and its implications.
Alternative philosophical views | dr. Bernardo Kastrup Essentia Foundation 2022-11-27 | Part 8 of Essentia Foundation's and Keytoe Academy's joint course on analytic idealism and its implications.
