582. Daniel P. Brown

Dr. Daniel Brown has been a clinical and forensic psychologist for almost 50 years. He has been at Harvard Medical School for almost 40 years. He has been a student of, translator for, and meditation master in the Indo-Tibetan and Bon meditation tradition for almost 50 years. He has the only Western neuroscience study identifying the brain changes in the shift from ordinary mind to awakened mind.

Books:

Websites:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded January 10, 2021

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:15 – The Universal Trouble of Relationships in East and West
  • 00:09:11 – Morality and Enlightenment
  • 00:13:18 – Realizations and Enlightenment
  • 00:17:37 – Practicing Automatic Emptiness and Unbounded Wholeness
  • 00:21:52 – The correlation between brain activity and subjective states
  • 00:26:09 – Shifting the Basis of Operation
  • 00:30:03 – The Speed of the Mind and Baseball Training
  • 00:34:10 – The Indestructible Essence in Buddhism
  • 00:38:14 – The Purification of the Body
  • 00:42:12 – The Transformation into Rainbow Body
  • 00:46:23 – The Desert Fathers’ Teachings and Controversy
  • 00:50:21 – The Seven Deadly Sins in Meditation
  • 00:54:23 – Putting Realizations into Practice
  • 00:58:40 – The True Test of Realization
  • 01:02:29 – Differentiating Awakened Awareness from Ordinary Awareness
  • 01:06:35 – The Ninth Stage of Concentration
  • 01:10:43 – Training the Mind to Concentrate
  • 01:14:42 – Realizing the Power of Non-Reactivity
  • 01:18:35 – Alternative to Traditional Tibetan Preliminary Practices
  • 01:22:42 – Balancing Enlightenment and Conduct
  • 01:26:39 – Different Paths to Enlightenment
  • 01:30:49 – Different Perspectives on Ultimate Reality
  • 01:34:49 – The Dying Tradition of Cave and Hermitage Monks
  • 01:39:10 – Concentration versus Effortlessness
  • 01:43:03 – Deep Transformation of the Nervous System
  • 01:46:47 – The Influence of Conspiracy Theories
  • 01:51:02 – The Danger of Fragmentation and Isolation
  • 01:55:14 – The Limitations of a Human Being
  • 01:59:44 – The Influence of Suggestive Influence and Soundbites
  • 02:03:58 – Conclusion and Farewell

577. Rick Hanson, 2nd Interview

This interview was recorded on October 9, 2020, as part of an online conference on “Living and Dying” offered by the Science and Nonduality Conference.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His free weekly newsletter has 180,000 subscribers and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial needs.

His books have been published in 29 languages with 900,000 copies in English alone and include:

He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and is the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. He loves wilderness and taking a break from emails.

Website: rickhanson.net

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

First BatGap interview with Rick Hanson.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Welcome to “Dying and Living”
  • 00:02:23 – Reflections on Equanimity and Love
  • 00:04:06 – Visual Representation of a Message
  • 00:05:38 – The Impermanence of Experience and the Search for Happiness
  • 00:07:37 – Resting in Stillness with Meditation
  • 00:09:38 – Cultivating Equanimity
  • 00:11:24 – Understanding the Mind and Increasing Equanimity
  • 00:13:04 – The Three Stages of Experience
  • 00:14:51 – Managing Aversion
  • 00:16:45 – Sensitizing to the Negative
  • 00:18:24 – Cultivating Peaceful Abiding
  • 00:20:03 – Dealing with the Good and the Bad
  • 00:21:39 – The Pace of News and Events
  • 00:23:06 – Cultivating Unbounded Awareness
  • 00:25:03 – Shifting Perspectives: Egocentric and Allocentric Views
  • 00:26:43 – Finding Beauty and Unboundedness
  • 00:28:06 – Finding Joy in the Local
  • 00:30:04 – The Importance of Living Well Locally
  • 00:31:55 – Individual and Collective Consciousness
  • 00:33:37 – The Connection Between Spirituality and Mental Stability
  • 00:35:24 – Practicing Authenticity and Cutting through Spiritual Materialism
  • 00:37:07 – The confluence of conspiracy theories and the spiritual community
  • 00:39:04 – The Influence of Cults and the Importance of Reality
  • 00:40:48 – Punishing Freeloaders and Promoting Truth
  • 00:42:34 – The Difficulty of Knowing the Truth
  • 00:44:22 – The Importance of Personal Character and Virtue
  • 00:45:48 – The Proliferation of Craziness
  • 00:47:18 – Supporting Institutions that Promote Truth
  • 00:49:08 – Developing Discernment and Spiritual Enlightenment
  • 00:51:13 – The Ephemeral Nature of Passing Phenomena
  • 00:53:09 – Conclusion and Farewell

576. Dean Radin, 2nd Interview

Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). He occasionally gives lectures in the Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University and has served on doctoral dissertation committees at Saybrook University and CIIS. His original career track as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a BSEE degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude with honors in physics, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and then an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For a decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories. For three decades he has been engaged in frontiers research on the nature of consciousness. Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, Interval Research Corporation, and SRI International.

He is author or coauthor of hundreds of scientific, technical, and popular articles, three dozen book chapters, and three popular books including the award-winning and bestselling The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena (HarperOne, 1997), Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality (Simon & Schuster, 2006), a 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award, Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities (Random House, 2013), and Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe (Penguin Random House). These books have been translated into 14 foreign languages, so far. His technical articles have appeared in journals including Foundations of Physics and Physics Essays to Psychological Bulletin and Journal of Consciousness Studies; he was featured in a New York Times Magazine article; and he has appeared on dozens of television shows ranging from the BBC’s Horizon to PBS’s Closer to Truth. He has given over 400 interviews and talks, including presentations at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Princeton, Virginia Tech, the Sorbonne, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Minnesota, for industries including Google, Johnson & Johnson, Rabobank, and for various government organizations including the US Navy, DARPA, and the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2010, he spent a month lecturing in India as the National Visiting Professor of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, a program sponsored by India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development. In 2013 and 2014, he gave invited lectures in Kuala Lumpur at the International Center for Leadership and Governance, an organization supported by the Central Bank of Malaysia. In 2015 he spoke at the Australian Leadership Retreat, a confidential program of briefings and discussions for Australian government, business, education, and military leaders.

Website: deanradin.com

Discussion of this interview in the Batgap Community Facebook Group.

Transcripts of this interview:

Interview recorded November 15, 2020.

First BatGap interview with Dean Radin.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction and Past Interviews
  • 00:04:43 – Psychic Phenomena and Fiction
  • 00:08:57 – Distortions in Perception
  • 00:12:49 – Cultural Bias and Social Acknowledgement
  • 00:16:24 – The Fundamentals of Consciousness
  • 00:20:17 – Quantum Objects and Classical Physics
  • 00:24:37 – Quantum Biology and the Brain
  • 00:28:47 – Storing Information Locally or in the Cloud 
  • 00:32:57 – Resistance to Yoga in Schools
  • 00:37:14 – The Limitations of Science and the Importance of Ancient Ideas
  • 00:41:27 – The Value of Laboratory Experiments in Understanding the World
  • 00:45:34 – The Transformative Power of Consciousness
  • 00:49:25 – The Foundation of Consciousness and Knowledge
  • 00:53:43 – The Possibilities of Knowing Everything
  • 00:57:26 – The Continuation of Exploration and Adventure
  • 01:01:22 – The Overlap of Magical Practice and Psychic Phenomena
  • 01:05:20 – The Study of Consciousness
  • 01:09:34 – The Limitations of Knowledge
  • 01:13:29 – The Allure of Magic and Fiction
  • 01:17:53 – The Genetic Difference in Psychic Abilities
  • 01:21:51 – Biomarkers and the Effect of Psychedelics
  • 01:26:01 – Evolution and the Future of Homo Sapiens
  • 01:29:58 – E.T. Channeling and Verification
  • 01:33:58 – Levitation and Miraculous Abilities
  • 01:38:04 – The Authenticity of D.D. Home’s Mediumship
  • 01:41:49 – The Power of Collective Consciousness
  • 01:45:42 – The Role of Intervention in Consciousness Experimentation
  • 01:49:55 – Power and Responsibility
  • 01:53:50 – Natural Talents and Extraordinary Abilities in the Population
  • 01:57:51 – The Movement Towards an Esoteric Worldview
  • 02:01:54 – Finding Meaning and Purpose in the Universe