Stanislav Grof and David E. Nichols - Consciousness: transpersonal and scientific approach

Excertp from a talk @ Mind States '03

Full talk: http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?p=1025

I'm pretty skeptical on dualism, however I am very curious on how to explain certain phenomena of transpersonal psychology. I believe, as the member of the public asked, there will be a unifying theory that can identify the brain processes that lead to this kind of experience.

There is a book that exposes this debate in a bright way, which is the summary of discussions on consciousness with a group of neuroscientists such as portuguese Antonio Damasio, Patricia Churchland and others with Dalai Lama .The name is "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama and Buddhism on Brainscience"

Category:

Education

Tags:

• David
• Nichols
• Stanislav
• Grof
• Transpersonal
• Dualism
• Mind
• States
• Consciousness

[KaHabbful]

I think that the questioner had a great question. A lot of the ideas about psychedelics are really idealistic and unfounded so it is important to listen to skeptics' observations.

Even Nichols, one of the, if not the most foremost experts on psychedelics, is not willing to publicly state that consciousness is not a product of the brain. While we have yet to find a "seat" of consciousness in the brain or body we can reliably change people's behaviors with different techniques.

[FireAndFlames]

The questioner is kind of a prick. Good question but let them speak, please.

[soldatheero]

Chemicals which enable it possible for a man to see thousands of miles away and experience his consciusness outside of his body. Sounds pretty fucking magical. Why is it so impossible for people to accept the possibility that consciousness is fundemental in nature, all signs are pointing to this being the case.

[HolonsNetwork]

TY for posting. featured and shared.

[LemonLimeLaughter]

I heard the frontal cortex allows us to have experience just by imagining them. Maybe entheogens activate the frontal cortex, therefore allowing us to make more accurate models of reality and better simulate hypothetical situations. So, with entheogens we melt away our abstract, linear and quantitive way of thinking and so our opinions are not so farfetched and unrealistic.

[Viandanterosso]

Thanks for posting really interesting material, phenothiazine........