565. Iain McGilchrist

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Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine, and psychiatry. He is the author of a number of books but is best known for The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, and is currently working on a book of epistemology and ontology. He lives on the Isle of Skye and has two daughters and a son.

Websites:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded August 22, 2020.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction and Background of Dr. Iain McGilchrist
  • 00:03:31 – The Story of the Spiritual Master and the Emissary
  • 00:06:45 – The Sacred and the Divine
  • 00:09:56 – Understanding the World: Left Hemisphere and Right Hemisphere
  • 00:13:10 – The Left and Right Hemisphere’s Different Views of the World
  • 00:16:29 – The Evolution of Spirituality in the Left and Right Hemispheres
  • 00:20:00 – Harmonizing Contradictory Perspectives
  • 00:23:26 – Focusing Sharply while Maintaining Broad Awareness
  • 00:26:39 – The Right Hemisphere and Consciousness
  • 00:29:49 – The Right Hemisphere’s View of Subjectivity and Objectivity
  • 00:33:10 – Restructuring the Brain through Subtle Focus
  • 00:36:39 – Personal Experience with Psychedelics and Anomalies
  • 00:40:02 – Shifting Paradigms in Science
  • 00:43:37 – The Evolution of Western Culture
  • 00:46:56 – Breaking down institutions and the future of civilization
  • 00:50:22 – Concerns about the Destruction of History
  • 00:53:40 – The Importance of Education in Developing Critical Thinking
  • 00:57:05 – Nuanced Politics and Discerning Patterns
  • 01:00:30 – Fundamentalist Certainty and Claims of Truth
  • 01:03:56 – The Decline into Dogmatic Thinking and the Need for a Change
  • 01:07:13 – The Rise of Young People’s Enthusiasm for Change and Education Overhaul
  • 01:10:40 – The Need for a Spiritual Revolution
  • 01:14:04 – The Relationship Between Physics and Spirituality
  • 01:17:23 – The Humbling Experience of Writing
  • 01:20:47 – The Importance of Trust
  • 01:24:24 – Taking Responsibility for Your Actions
  • 01:27:37 – The Role of the Left Hemisphere in Psychotic Behavior
  • 01:31:11 – Dawkins, the Renaissance, and Humor
  • 01:34:29 – The Illusion of a Divided Consciousness
  • 01:38:05 – The Nine-Dot Puzzle and Frontal Cortex Suppression
  • 01:41:50 – Introduction to the New Venture

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