Understanding consciousness is more important than ever
Seeing | Neuroscience | 2026-04-17
Michael Pollan, MA, BA
Hans Busstra, MA
Michael Pollan is one of the world’s most influential science writers, known for his authoritative journalistic investigations into food, plants, and psychedelics. In his latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” he turns to the nature of consciousness by rigorously exploring the leading scientific theories in the field. In this interview, Pollan reflects on why he has come to doubt that materialism can fully account for consciousness, calling it “unproven or wrong,” and why he describes consciousness as “a labyrinth from which there is no exit.”
A World Appears, A Journey Into Consciousness: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/443044/a-world-appears-by-pollan-michael/9780241509470
Een Wereld Verschijnt, Op Reis Door Het Bewustzijn: https://singeluitgeverijen.nl/de-arbeiderspers/boek/een-wereld-verschijnt/
More information on Michael Pollan’s work: https://michaelpollan.com/
Great thanks to The Embassy Of The Free Mind for the beautiful recording location and personal tour: https://embassyofthefreemind.com/
Chapter marks:
0:00 Introduction
3:50 Pollan’s metaphysical journey
7:30 What is sentience?
9:20 Plant consciousness
9:59 Pollan on Karl Friston’s free energy principle
11:08 Movement and the ability to feel pain
13:34 Talking to plants as epistemology
15:42 Michael Levin and bioelectricity
20:07 Transmissive theories of consciousness
23:30 Metzinger’s critique on Francis Crick
26:47 Politics and gender in consciousness research
30:55 Alison Gopnik and “Professor Consciousness”
32:46 The dream of conscious AI
36:02 The metaphysical landscape
42:13 Michael Pollan as a tragic comic figure…
43:22 Russell Hurlburt and inner experience
48:56 The end of Pollan’s journey
55:08 The gift of consciousness
57:15 Is there a war on consciousness?
59:02 Critique of computational functionalism
Essentia Foundation communicates, in an accessible but rigorous manner, the latest results in science and philosophy that point to the mental nature of reality. We are committed to strict, academic-level curation of the material we publish.
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