Tag: EF Interviews

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 on these findings with Dr. van Lommel, at his house in the Netherlands.

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.

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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. Buckle up, for this is an amazing journey (quite literally) where scientific reasoning and direct experience must somehow hold hands, despite seeming contradictions. Remember that, because of how YouTube works, to watch the video embedded below you must choose our ‘platinum’ privacy option (click on the fingerprint on the lower left to choose). Otherwise, you can always watch the video directly on YouTube.

Prof. Donald Hoffman talks to Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra about his theory of conscious agents, according to which space and time are cognitive constructs in consciousness, not an objective scaffolding of the world outside. The interview also touches on Prof. Hoffman’s personal history and life, bringing the warmth of his humanity to the academic rigor of his theories. Notice that, because of how YouTube works, to watch the video embedded in this page you must choose our ‘Platinum’ privacy option. Otherwise, you can also watch the video directly on YouTube.

Professor Tallis—a philosopher, poet, novelist, cultural critic, retired medical physician and clinical neuroscientist—discusses the relationship between mind and brain, as well as the big questions about the nature of reality. Notice that, because of how YouTube works, to watch the video embedded in this page you must choose our ‘Platinum’ privacy option. Otherwise, you can also watch the video directly on YouTube.

In this in-depth interview, Prof. dr. Sarah Durston discusses the limitations of trying to account for psychiatric conditions based solely on measurable brain anatomy and function. Her candid answers may surprise those who think that brain-reductionism rests on solid ground for at least the most common psychiatric conditions.

This special video production documents an informal engagement between Essentia Foundation’s founder and chairman, Fred Matser, and school children from Belthorn, UK. Yet unbiased by our culture’s conventional views regarding the nature of reality, these children’s pre-intellectual, felt sense of self and other reflect age-old intuitions rooted in nature, which we disregard at our own peril. The video is an invitation to revisit rooms in the palace of our minds that we’ve left behind many, many years ago; rooms that contain forgotten treasures whose unspoiled authenticity is an antidote to many of modern life’s ills.

Here is the second and final part of our interview with Dr. Iain McGilchrist, on the nature of reality. Unmissable!

Essentia Foundation’s Natalia Vorontsova interviews psychiatrist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist about his new work, “The Matter with Things,” and the role of consciousness in nature. Unmissable!