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Indhold leveret af Qualia Research Institute. Alt podcastindhold inklusive episoder, grafik og podcastbeskrivelser uploades og leveres direkte af Qualia Research Institute eller deres podcastplatformspartner. Hvis du mener, at nogen bruger dit ophavsretligt beskyttede værk uden din tilladelse, kan du følge processen beskrevet her https://da.player.fm/legal.
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Matt Deseno is the founder of multiple award winning marketing businesses ranging from a attraction marketing to AI appointment setting to customer user experience. When he’s not working on the businesses he teaches marketing at Pepperdine University and he also teaches other marketing agency owners how they created a software company to triple the profitability for the agency. Our Sponsors: * Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com * Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/tmf * Check out Moorings: https://moorings.com * Check out Trust & Will: https://trustandwill.com/TRAVIS * Check out Warby Parker: https://warbyparker.com/travis Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy…
Indhold leveret af Qualia Research Institute. Alt podcastindhold inklusive episoder, grafik og podcastbeskrivelser uploades og leveres direkte af Qualia Research Institute eller deres podcastplatformspartner. Hvis du mener, at nogen bruger dit ophavsretligt beskyttede værk uden din tilladelse, kan du følge processen beskrevet her https://da.player.fm/legal.
The Qualia Research Institute (QRI.org) is a California 501(c)(3) non-profit research group studying consciousness in a consistent, meaningful, and rigorous way. Our goal is to spread the ideas of our institute in a more accessible way and to support the research being done by our members.
Indhold leveret af Qualia Research Institute. Alt podcastindhold inklusive episoder, grafik og podcastbeskrivelser uploades og leveres direkte af Qualia Research Institute eller deres podcastplatformspartner. Hvis du mener, at nogen bruger dit ophavsretligt beskyttede værk uden din tilladelse, kan du følge processen beskrevet her https://da.player.fm/legal.
The Qualia Research Institute (QRI.org) is a California 501(c)(3) non-profit research group studying consciousness in a consistent, meaningful, and rigorous way. Our goal is to spread the ideas of our institute in a more accessible way and to support the research being done by our members.
Join us for an in-depth discussion that bridges computational and implementation perspectives on the mind, grounding the Qualia Research Institute (QRI) from first principles for those already somewhat familiar with the philosophy of mind. Filmed after a QRI meetup in Berlin, this conversation between QRI collaborator Libor Burian and Andrés Gómez Emilsson provides an overview of our research and methodologies.…
Normally in meditation we are focused on what IS in experience, but to be able to notice the absence of phenomena is key as well! Where there once were qualia, now there aren’t - what does that reveal to us about their nature? Roger Thisdell guides a meditation starting with a taste session on the major ingredients which make up our experience. Then after paying attention to these components, we deliberately try to not pay attention to them. What we find is the move to let go of paying attention to anything is a universal move - no matter the object of attention - how convenient! The ability to take attention off of more and more aspects of experience is an essential skill which eventually culminates in the ability to not pay attention to time,space and consciousness, resulting in cessation. For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis…
In this guided meditation, our invited facilitator, Wystan, leads participants through meticulous body scanning techniques designed to cultivate an acute consciousness of the immediate present. Transitioning seamlessly from body scanning to methods of introspection, and further incorporating the nuanced technique of finger-following to “spread out the vision”, Wystan imparts a spectrum of methodologies that promise to augment the meditative practice of individuals across all levels of expertise. For more content from Wystan Byant-Scott, see his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wystantbs488/videos…
Metta is a Pali word that can be translated as benevolence, friendliness, or good will. It is a key state of mind for meditative practice; it has the capacity to heal, invigorate, and center the mind. The majority of guided Metta meditations emphasize the ways in which you can trigger this state of mind with semantic content and imagery. For example imagining a loved one, a pet, or even a beautiful scene, and tuning into the feeling of friendliness that such an image sparks. In this meditation we instead emphasize the phenomenal character of Metta as a way to develop it, establish it, and understand it deeply. For example, we discuss how one can use different varieties of attention in order to kindle this feeling. We also tune into one’s intentions and background mood in order to nudge the mind towards Metta. More so, we carefully study how technical phenomenological features such as rhythm, wave envelope, and energy affects the quality and intensity of Metta. May this meditation be of benefit to sentient beings! Relevant Links: Metta Practice, and a few things about Piti (Instructions), by Rob Burbea ( https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60871/ ) Guide to Writing Rigorous Reports of Exotic States of Consciousness ( https://qri.org/blog/rigorous-reports ) Guided Meditation: The Varieties of Attention ( https://youtu.be/YYSkKgwH4Bg?si=okgPbqKSGt8MvIHq ) Buddhist Annealing: Wireheading Done Right with the Seven Factors of Awakening ( https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/04/04/buddhist-annealing-wireheading-done-right-with-the-seven-factors-of-awakening/ ) Metta: The Fabric Softener of Reality ( https://youtu.be/SN-Wfk8bYo0?si=jpSS3lYSvOR6V-7P )…
In this guided meditation, we delve into the phenomenology of various conceptions of personal identity. Specifically, we observe the experiential nuances of believing that we are individual souls (Closed Individualism), that we are a single universal consciousness (Open Individualism), that we represent ephemeral moments of experience (Empty Individualism), and that we encompass all these identities concurrently (Goldilocks Zone of Oneness). As with the "The Phenomenology of Ontology" meditation, our objective here is to discern the qualities of experience that shape a specific worldview. In essence, the phenomenology of personal identity is a pivotal subject for any holistic consciousness research initiative, regardless of the metaphysical veracity of these perspectives. The capacity of these conceptions to modify experiential attributes—such as refining internal boundaries or amplifying the choppiness of sensations—underscores the importance of this topic for both phenomenological and scientific exploration. More so, many exotic states of consciousness involve implicit alterations to our conceptions of personal identity. Therefore knowing how to detect the experiential features that make these beliefs feel more or less plausible is essential to successfully navigate exotic states of consciousness without compromising one’s epistemology. Relevant Links: Ontological Qualia: The Future of Personal Identity ( https://qualiacomputing.com/2015/12/17/ontological-qualia-the-future-of-personal-identity/ ) For more extensive definitions, see the Glossary of the Qualia Research Institute ( https://qri.org/glossary ) Guided Meditation: The Phenomenology of Ontology ( https://youtu.be/QRExq_sf6No?si=G1cA1b0fAaE1oGjP )…
There are many spiritual and yogic practices that utilize “elemental” objects of meditation. For example, the guided meditation by Michael Taft called “Five Elements Meditation” (link below) centers the mind around mental formations evocative of earth, water, fire, air, and space. Alas, it is natural to be skeptical of the value of these practices on the basis that science has shown that the universe is made up of particles, forces, and fields, and not the traditional elements of ancient ontologies. Nevertheless, within the paradigm of Qualia Mastery in meditation, we affirm the significance of specific states of consciousness, irrespective of the techniques used to induce them. Adhering rigidly to a modern scientific worldview might, in fact, impede one's engagement with such meditative practices. Engaging fully with a meditation that posits, for instance, fire as a fundamental entity, can often yield richer results when one genuinely subscribes to the idea. Continual internal rebuttals, such as "fire isn't foundational; electrons are!" can inhibit deep immersion into these states. So how can we rescue what is valuable from this style of meditation without having to buy into an implicit “elemental ontology”? Here is where the relevance of “self-organizing principles” comes into play. Namely, where we realize that the nervous system is capable of instantiating a cornucopia of diverse self-organizing principles that are used to render one’s inner world-simulation. Thus, when you imagine and embody “the element of fire” you are, in a way, instantiating a collection of self-organizing principles that roughly emulate the behavior of fire. Therefore, we can use a more generalized conception of “elemental meditation” as a window into these self-organizing principles. This is what this meditation does. Relevant Links: Five Elements Meditation by Michael Taft ( https://www.youtube.com/live/p_1BPl39orA?si=uyF-hcVoDKp3IWgW ) Digital Sentience Requires Solving the Boundary Problem, where the computational properties of self-organizing principles are discussed ( https://qri.org/blog/digital-sentience )…
It is often said that one of the most important meditative skills that one can cultivate is the practice of letting go . This means letting go of attachments, of cravings, of a sense of identity, and the need for things to be anything other than what they are. However, in practice doing this is more difficult than it sounds; we have a habit of holding tight to much more than we require for optimal wellbeing. This guided meditation emphasizes two key aspects of letting go. Namely, (1) tactical methods for letting go, such as the judicious use of unusual varieties of attention, higher order equanimity, imaginal practices, and precise technique (such as rhythm and timing). And (2) the fact that letting go can be practiced in much deeper ways and with a much wider scope than is usually realized. In particular, letting go can take place in the visual, tactile, auditory domains, in addition to the spacious, cognitive, spiritual, and intuitive levels of the mind. We conclude this meditation by listening to meditative music with the goal of experiencing it with complete equanimity and acceptance and putting our letting go techniques to practice: “936Hz Pineal Gland Activation Solfeggio Meditation w/ Binaural Beat frequencies” ( https://youtu.be/3h2mJnvRbZ8?si=5puO7FnxNsT_wqz8 )…
This meditation explores the phenomenology of absorption into Platonic objects. We delve into what it feels like to imagine, embody, and generate the sense of knowing of classic geometric and mathematical constructs. One of the main takeaways from this meditation is that we can attune to the difference between (1) how we render a particular instance of a Platonic object and (2) the sense of knowing and existence of that object that arises as we do so. That is, (1) emphasizes the specific point of view from which a Platonic object (say, a cube) can be apprehended. Each point of view gives rise to, in a way, a completely different experience (cf. Borges’ Funes the Memorious). Namely, the experience of rendering such an object from that particular point of view, with all of the sensory and qualitative features that come along with it. In contrast (2) points to that which remains the same across all of these points of view. Namely, the ways in which holding these objects in one’s attention keeps aspects of our experience invariant (such as the intuitions and resonances that come with each particular Platonic object). In addition, we also explore how the geometry of attention affects one’s valence and sense of ease, with the goal of naturalizing “Sacred Geometry” for the cultivation of Qualia Mastery. Relevant Links: On Dark Rooms, Jhanas, Ecstasy, and the Symmetry Theory of Valence ( https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/10/31/on-dark-rooms-jhanas-ecstasy-and-the-symmetry-theory-of-valence/ ) Guided Meditation: The Varieties of Attention ( https://youtu.be/YYSkKgwH4Bg?si=okgPbqKSGt8MvIHq )…
Expansion and contraction are the subtlest distinguishing features of experience. This meditation on expansion and contraction, given by Roger Thisdell, is a guide for finding and synchronizing to the oscillatory nature of experience at different levels, and then realising the co-dependence on one another in order to exist. Where there is expansion there is contraction and vice versa. By having sufficient energy in the mind and being able to widen the ‘aperture’ of our present moment perception it is possible to notice contraction within attention, and expansion within awareness (and vice versa) at the same time! For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis…
In this meditation, Roger Thisdell guides us in a meditation of somatic scanning up and down the body using concurrent waves of awareness that pass through one another. We are trying to balance both the sense of grounding, stability with the sense of wakeful, levity. By the end of the meditation, the goal is to isolate and metacognize the sense of ‘becoming’ within experience, and notice that this signal is always presenting itself. We may question, if everything seems like it’s always ‘becoming’ (but never fully become), then what significance does this have with the goal of trying to have ‘arrived’ somewhere? For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis…
Paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1233119/full The boundary problem is related to the binding problem, part of a family of puzzles and phenomenal experiences that theories of consciousness (ToC) must either explain or eliminate. By comparison with the phenomenal binding problem, the boundary problem has received very little scholarly attention since first framed in detail by Rosengard in 1998, despite discussion by Chalmers in his widely cited 2016 work on the combination problem. However, any ToC that addresses the binding problem must also address the boundary problem. The binding problem asks how a unified first person perspective (1PP) can bind experiences across multiple physically distinct activities, whether billions of individual neurons firing or some other underlying phenomenon. To a first approximation, the boundary problem asks why we experience hard boundaries around those unified 1PPs and why the boundaries operate at their apparent spatiotemporal scale. We review recent discussion of the boundary problem, identifying several promising avenues but none that yet address all aspects of the problem. We set out five specific boundary problems to aid precision in future efforts. We also examine electromagnetic (EM) field theories in detail, given their previous success with the binding problem, and introduce a feature with the necessary characteristics to address the boundary problem at a conceptual level. Topological segmentation can, in principle, create exactly the hard boundaries desired, enclosing holistic, frame-invariant units capable of effecting downward causality. The conclusion outlines a programme for testing this concept, describing how it might also differentiate between competing EM ToCs.…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will take you through QRI's recent work, focusing on two key aspects: The Thermodynamics of Consciousness: This part of the meditation will explore how energy flows from various sources such as sensory stimulation, valence, attention, surprise, and the background noise signature. This energy is directed towards the bound field of consciousness, which is then shaped via the energy sink landscape of symmetry and recognition. Finally, the processed consciousness exits through motor action or what is referred to as "outer field radiation." The Ecosystem of Agents: Drawing a parallel to next-token prediction engines like GPT-4, this part of the meditation will explain how our minds work similarly, where existing constraints help resolve ambiguity in our experiences. To make accurate predictions of the world, our minds simulate agentive behavior because the world is full of agents. To achieve this, "subagents" are created to play the role of agentive forces, which can be predicted to ensure safety. Throughout the meditation, you will explore a series of strategies to deal with these subagents and harmonize them within a healthy and wholesome ecosystem of friendly subagents that help each other in beautiful ways. Some of these strategies include: Improving the training data for subagents. Guiding lost subagents to a pool of love to re-absorb them. Cultivating good vibes as a base to provide evolutionary selection pressures for friendly agents to arise. Emphasizing equanimity and metta to reward clean intentions rather than flattery. Exploring different network structures for agents that are more easily manageable. By engaging in these practices, you can create a harmonious and beneficial ecosystem of subagents within your mind.…
Without making any ontological, philosophical, or metaphysical assertions or assumptions, we acknowledge that the experience of the divine and the concept of "God" can have a significant impact on the human soul. Therefore, exploring this phenomenon is crucial for obtaining a comprehensive and direct understanding of consciousness.In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through an exploration of various conceptions of the divine without favoring any particular one. The central question guiding this exploration is: what is the experiential essence of inhabiting a world in which God is perceived in different ways? Rather than pursuing a specific dogma, we engage in an open-ended exploration of the divine to foster Qualia Mastery*. This approach is termed "Open Sourcing God," where individuals are not reliant on external interpretations or rules to access their own understanding of the divine.The diverse conceptions of the divine that will be explored include Chaos, Ingroup, Hierarchy, Creator, The Law, Archetype, Replication, Dynamics, Life, Energy, Coincidence and Synchronicity, Love, Compassion, Witness, Consciousness, Awareness, Oneness, Axis of Annealing, and Valence.…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a series of exercises that illustrate harmonic resonance in the energy body. Subsequently, excess energy will be channeled into high-valence tactile sensations (resembling Piti), which can serve as a potential foundational practice for the 1st Jhana.The meditation primarily focuses on the inner and outer "feel" channels of the (see, hear, feel) X (inner, outer) formulation of the "factorization experience," as introduced by Shinzen Young in his Unified Mindfulness framework. When necessary, feel free to use the inner and outer "see" channel for support, but keep the "feel" channel as the primary point of focus. During this meditation, we will explore the following types of oscillations: On/off Left/right Top/bottom Front/back Expand/contract Toroidal flow (up, down, both at once) Checkerboard pattern Zebra pattern Homogenous attention in space Space qualities: solid, liquid, magnetic, viscosity, gaseous, plasma Pleasure, joy, peace Laminal flow and energy management techniques Prior to attempting this meditation, it is advisable to listen to the guided meditations on Energy, Attention, and Valence from the Qualia Mastery series.…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a diverse array of potential high-valence states of consciousness, often referred to as phenomenal "heaven worlds."The concept of "meditation calisthenics" draws inspiration from calisthenics exercises, which involve minimal equipment and target all muscle groups in the body. In the context of meditation, "meditation calisthenics" means engaging in various meditative approaches to keep all your "meditation muscles" in shape. Specifically, "high-valence calisthenics" pertains to the practice of exploring every form of positive valence state of consciousness that can be attained without external aids, such as chemical substances, sensory stimuli, or situational factors.During this guided meditation, we will explore high-valence configurations of "see, hear, feel" (both inner and outer experiences), artistic states of consciousness, social mindsets, metta (loving-kindness), the state of "cosmic party mode," the realms of insight, intellectual understanding, realization, and refined and purified high-valence states (Jhanas).We will conclude the meditation by dedicating these beautiful qualities of the mind for the benefit of all beings, wishing infinite bliss for everyone.…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will assist you in exploring how attention constructs local binding connections between phenomenal features, and how the flow of attention and awareness can be likened to the graph algorithm called PageRank.Topics covered in the meditation include: Reviewing the nature of attention: what you pay attention to becomes stronger, gets locally bound, and connects to what you were paying attention to right before. Noticing local binding in the experiences of See, Hear, and Feel (both inner and outer). Cross-modal coupling: employing the divide and conquer technique to prevent negative valence and the coherence technique to enhance positive valence. Understanding the oscillatory complementarity between awareness and attention. Recognizing how objects of perception can act as witnesses and witnessed elements of a scene. Exploring hybrid attentional modes. Investigating chains of witnessing and Nth-order intentionality. Examining the concept of PageRank applied to attention. Delving into space witnessing space. These techniques and insights are valuable additions to your Qualia Mastery* toolkit.…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will walk you through various methods to modulate the "energy parameter" of experience, which serves as a fundamental component of the Neural Annealing framework in the nervous system. The Neural Annealing approach explores how appropriately defined energy impacts internal representations, aids in solving constraint satisfaction problems, and has the potential to lead to sustainable high-valence states of consciousness by reducing internal stress.During the meditation, we will explore different sources of energy, including:(a) Sensory input (b) Pleasure and pain (c) Attention (d) SurpriseAdditionally, a wide range of techniques for building, managing, and skillfully deploying energy will be discussed and practiced.Enjoy this transformative experience!…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a transformative journey that includes the following elements: A factorization of experience into three main channels with their corresponding inner and outer versions: "see," "hear," and "feel." Utilizing your energy body as an antenna capable of perceiving both shapes and frequencies of internal representations, exploring the duality between form and vibration in the phenomenal world. Understanding symmetry and smooth geometry as the fundamental basis for valence. Recognizing consonance, dissonance, and noise as tools to assess the valence of our world-simulation. Learning a variety of practical strategies to address phenomenal dissonance effectively. Enjoy this profound exploration!Relevant links/references: High-Valence Meditation - https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/12/03/high-valence-meditation/ Michael Johnson's Principia Qualia - Introduction to the Symmetry Theory of Valence, valence structuralism, and qualia formalism - https://opentheory.net/principia-qualia/ The Consonance Disonance Noise Signature framework first introduced by Andrés Gómez Emilsson in Quantifying Bliss - https://qri.org/blog/quantifying-bliss The Symmetry Theory of Valence (@The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London) - https://youtu.be/tSPZ4xt5f2k Neural Annealing by Michael Johnson - https://…
In this guided meditation, Andrés will take you on a journey to explore the different ways of believing in various ontologies.Without making any definitive claims about the nature of reality, you will delve into the phenomenology of ontology. This involves exploring what it feels like to inhabit a phenomenal world where the fundamental building blocks of reality are perceived in distinct ways.One essential insight you will gain is the realization of how different facets of your experience can solidify and rigidify an ontology. For example, in the "dualism" ontology where both matter and mind coexist, you may notice how this can trigger the feeling of being encased or trapped within your body. However, through attentive observation, you can recognize that this sense of confinement arises from somatic feelings that render the experience in a particular way, rather than it being an inherent truth.Throughout the meditation, you will explore various ontologies, including:(1) Dualism: The coexistence of mind and matter. (2) Trinitarianism: The interplay of matter, consciousness, and space. (3) Atomism: The understanding that matter is composed of atoms, and the exploration of potential holism or binding. (4) Jain ontology: The existence of approximately nine fundamental kinds of ontological building blocks of reality, including space, time, dynamism, atoms, soul, and "karma particles." (5) Monism: The belief that everything is qualia, awareness, information, algorithms, computation, belief, or a social construction (Strong Tlon Hypothesis). (6) Ontologies of infinities. (7) Ontologies of Zero: Delving into David Pearce's Zero Ontology, where the existence of "zero information" implies the coexistence of all mutually-consistent universes of bound qualia.The exploration of the last ontology, Zero Ontology, is particularly powerful, as it can lead to the "rainbow God" phenomenology, where all flavors of qualia converge and "cancel each other out." This experience is closely related to the phenomenology of 5-MeO-DMT and the formless Jhanas.May all who engage in this meditation benefit from its profound insights!…
This is a guided meditation provided by Andrés in order to enrich one's conception of the nature of "attention". Attention is typically thought of as a fuzzy "spotlight" that redirects cognitive resources to a region of one's experience. But this is just one of many varieties of attention. In fact, many changes to one's state of consciousness have very little to do with changes to perceptual features like color, brightness, auditory pitch, tactile sensations, or the texture of thought. At times, one can tell that one's state of consciousness has changed dramatically and yet it is very hard to pin-point exactly what that change consists of. In many of those cases, that's because the change is primarily attentional. Thus, learning about alternative modes of attention is an important tool to enable higher quality phenomenological reports and replications. It has the added bonus that knowing a broad range of attentional modes can radically enhance one's meditation practice. Join us in this guided meditation to get acquainted with a much broader set of attentional modes.…
In this episode, QRI's research director, Andres Gomez Emilsson, describes his experience with a 2-week Jhanas meditation retreat. He talks about what it means to experience higher dimensions, his personal background with meditation, the retreat protocol, and commentary on the lectures given by Rob Burbea. He also shares how QRI's paradigms are relevant in this context, new insights, and additional realizations. Lastly, he discusses the effect of various scents/perfumes and mild psychoactives on Jhanas meditation.…
In this episode, we explore the similarities between the brain and a musical instrument. We illustrate how the brain tissue is represented by metal and how brain activity can be mimicked by sound. We also demonstrate how substances such as psychedelics and dissociatives can be used to alter brain activity. This model is based on the fact that both sound and neuronal firing are examples of oscillatory activity which can have different frequency, amplitude, coherence, and damping.…
In this episode, we explore the hard problem of consciousness. What is it, and why is it so hard to solve? We'll also discuss the work of the Qualia Research Institute, and what they're doing to try to quantify and map the qualia landscape. We discuss how consciousness is the only thing we can ever experience, yet it is mostly ignored by science. We also explore how the study of consciousness is still on the same primitive level as the sciences of astronomy and chemistry were hundreds of years ago.…
In this episode, we explore the idea of emergent simplicity - the idea that adding just one extra component to a complex system can cause it to "tip" into a drastically simpler state. We use the example of adding carbon dioxide to the Earth, which would cause the Earth to become a much simpler system where neither life nor liquid water would exist. We also use the example of adding 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyl tryptamine to the human brain, which would cause the brain to become a much simpler system where neither selfhood nor agency would exist.…
In this episode, we discuss with the ontology of reality with Andrés Gómez Emilsson from the Qualia Research Institute, Daniel Ingram from the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium (EPRC), and Frank Yang (body-builder turned meditator). This conversation was very fruitful, given that Daniel and Frank are advanced and accomplished meditators with a vast experience base that informs their understanding of what is possible in the realm of consciousness. We explore various QRI paradigms and test their explanatory power and consistency with the first-person experience of Daniel and Frank.…
In this episode, we discuss the haptic research that was conducted at QRI in 2021. This research was conducted in order to explore the potential of haptic stimulation for aiding in psychedelic therapy. We discuss the results of our research and how we believe that incorporating haptic stimulation into psychedelic treatment can be beneficial.…
In this episode, Steven Lehar overviews the core insights of his life's work in perceptual research. He discusses the paradox of visual experience, amodal perception and perceptual reification, the ontology of visual experience, and gestalt theory. He also talks about the properties of harmonic resonance and how they can be used to understand and model perception.…
In this episode, we discuss the limitations of current research paradigms for studying exotic states of consciousness, and how they may prevent us from understanding key aspects of these states. We also talk about some of the weird and bizarre properties of experience that have been reported by those who have undergone these states, and how they challenge our current understanding of consciousness. Finally, we offer some ideas for how to study these phenomena in more systematic ways.…
In this episode, we discuss the preliminary findings of our research into visual tracers on altered states of consciousness. We explain how we developed a fine-grained vocabulary and an interactive tool to allow users to replicate the effects in detail. We share our current understanding of the characteristics of tracers for each of the conditions we have datapoints for, and argue that they might have unexpected applications. Finally, we explain how to generalize this paradigm to other core psychedelic effects.…
In this episode, we hear from Quintin Frerichs of the Qualia Research Institute about Neural Annealing - a theory for how the brain updates emotional beliefs. Frerichs discusses how this theory can help us to understand how the brain processes information, and how it can be applied to improve our understanding of mental illness and other neurological conditions.…
In this episode, we explore the idea that the true range of intensity of both pleasure and pain is orders of magnitude wider than we intuitively believe. This discovery has serious and important revision to ethical priorities for utilitarian and humanitarian movements.
In this episode, Andrés Gómez Emilsson from the Qualia Research Institute presents the Symmetry Theory of Valence (STV) to Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris and his team at The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.
In this episode, we discuss the nature of mathematical cognition, and how it differs from sacred geometry meditation. We argue that mathematical cognition involves the use of special kind of conscious state, where you partition your mind with a self-other divide, and then manipulate patterns of attention and awareness in order to find transitive equivalences in a network of invariants. This process of reification requires us to believe in the existence of abstract objects in order to participate in the story. We observe that the difference between mathematical cognition and sacred geometrical meditation is perhaps more subtle than it seems, and that the objects of meditation can break the self-other divide and cause "nondual states of mind". Ultimately, we conclude that computation is akin to the "sequel of mathematics", where the arrow of time is introduced, and that trying to bootstrap reality from computation might be akin to trying to get an explanation for world politics from "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers".…
In this episode, we discuss how philosophy of mind and the science of consciousness has non-trivial and significant implications in the realm of ethics. We cover topics such as mixed valence states, logarithmic scales of pleasure and pain, personal identity, and the symmetry theory of valence. Finally, we brainstorm a bit about what a great reality show it would be for philosophers to take drugs and go on meditation retreats while talking about ethics and philosophy of mind.…
In this episode, we explore how the paradigm of oscillatory complementarity can articulate and clarify a wide range of exotic phenomena. We discuss how concentration meditation can give rise a certain kind of oscillatory annealing, and how insight practice involves de-energizing the non-linearities (gestalts) that make up your world-simulation. We also explore how LSD non-duality can be understood as more diffuse elements of experience becoming the non-linear oscillatory complements of the field of awareness, such as "light", "space", and "being". Finally, we re-evaluate the models introduced in the original Qualia Computing article on the geometry of DMT experiences in light of this new paradigm.…
In this episode, we explore the idea that our inner world-simulation is constructed with vibes interacting with one another to form gestalts, which in turn form large-scale self-reinforcing attractors aka. "realms". We explain that vibes have precise valence characteristics, and when they are above a certain level of energy they become non-linear and thus they "bounce off each other" to form gestalts. These gestalts function as non-linearities that our brain stores as building blocks, which are then stacked with each other to form complex scenes, and ultimately entire realms of experience. Importantly, the valence characteristics of vibes and those of the gestalts they give rise to are mutually reinforcing. This allows us to understand how moods work. So... be wise about your vibes!…
In this episode, we explore the concept of a Full-Spectrum Supersentient Superintelligence - a mind that is capable of exploring, recruiting, and instantiating arbitrary state-spaces of consciousness for computational and aesthetic purposes. We discuss how this radically enriched conception of intelligence is needed in order to understand the true potential of superintelligence.…
In this episode, we explore the question of why we are conscious. The short answer is that consciousness allows us to recruit self-organizing principles that can run on a massively parallel fashion in order to find solutions to problems at wave propagation speed. However, this answer raises more questions than it answers. In order to fully understand the role of consciousness, we need to enrich our conceptions of computation and intelligence. Once we do this, we can see that consciousness plays a vital role in our ability to quickly solve problems.…
In this episode, we discuss the 'binding problem' of consciousness, and how it can be broken down into manageable subcomponents. We suggest that any solution to the binding problem must avoid strong emergence, side-step the hard problem of consciousness, circumvent epiphenomenalism, and be compatible with the modern scientific word picture. We then explain that "the binding problem" as stated is in fact conceptually insoluble, and should be reformulated as the "boundary problem". Finally, we present what we believe is a plausible solution to the boundary problem: topological segmentation.…
In this episode, we explore the idea that DMT experiences can be higher dimensional in a meaningful sense. We discuss how degrees of freedom can become interlocked in such a way that they functionally emulate the behavior of a virtual higher dimension, as exemplified by the "harmonograph". We also discuss how the unique valence properties of the DMT state seem to follow what we could call a "generalized music theory" where the "vibe" of the space is the net consonance between all of the metronomes in it. Finally, we conclude with a discussion about the nature of "highly-meaningful experiences".…
In this episode, we discuss the new methods that are helping to bring about a new paradigm in consciousness research. We discuss how taking exotic states of consciousness seriously, and engaging in high-quality phenomenology can help us to understand the mind better. We also talk about the importance of having a critical mass of smart and rational psychonauts, and how generalized Wada tests can help us to understand the state-space of consciousness. Finally, we talk about the importance of cognitive sovereignty, and how it can help us to be more responsible for the information we put out.…
In this episode, we analyze the perfume category called "Aromatic Fougère" in order to illustrate the aesthetic of "Qualiacore" in its myriad manifestations. We define the Qualiacore Aesthetic as the practice and aspiration to describe experiences in new, meaningful, and non-trivial ways that are illuminating for our understanding of the nature of consciousness. We also discuss the art of perfumery in light of QRI's 8 models of art, focusing on how the Qualiacore Aesthetic can be used to communicate information about worthwhile qualia.…
In this episode, we explore the importance of cognitive sovereignty - the principle that people should be free to think and feel as they wish, that ideas should be owned by those who come up with them, and that information should be shared responsibly. We discuss how this principle can incentivize smart people to focus their energies on having genuinely new thoughts, and how it can help to create the conditions for innovation and creativity.…
In this episode, we explore the challenge of thinking wholesome, genuinely useful, and novel thoughts about how to build paradise. Most of the "visions of paradise" we find in our culture, media, and art are projections of implicit aesthetics used for human coordination, rather than deeply thought-out and high-dimensional perspectives truly meant to elevate our understanding and inspire us to investigate the Mystery of reality. Aesthetics tend to put the cart before the horse: they tacitly come with a sense of what is good and what is real. Aesthetics are fast, parallel, and collective ways of judging the goodness or badness of images, ideas, and archetypes. To disentangle ourselves from tacit low-dimensional aesthetics, and inspired by the work of Rob Burbea (cf. Soulmaking), we go over what aesthetics consist of: Eros, Psyche, and Logos. Then, to explore high-quality aesthetics relevant to paradise engineering, we go over 7 camps of a hypothetical "Superhappiness Festival", each representing a different advanced aesthetic: Hedonism, Psychiatry, Wholesome, Paleo, Energy, Self-Organization, and Paradise Engineering.…
In this episode, we discuss the Friston's Free Energy Principle (FEP) and how it can be used to explain features of exotic experiences. We talk about how the FEP shows up in the literature today, and how it can be used to explain features of exotic experiences. We also discuss Safron's countermodel of Strengthened BEliefs Under pSychedelics (SEBUS) and the work coming out of Seth's lab.…
In this episode, we explore the idea that digital computers cannot be conscious. We discuss the philosophical journey that led us to this conclusion, as well as the classic issues in philosophy of mind that support our position. Finally, we solve the boundary problem with topological segmentation, which allows us to also provide an explanation for what the causal properties of experience are.…
In this episode, we explore the problem of other minds and how to solve it using a combination of mindmelding and phenomenal puzzles. We discuss how this approach can be used to increase our certainty of other's consciousness, and how it can address the problem of other minds in a way that even strong skeptics will be satisfied with.…
In this episode, we discuss the differences between DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. We look at how they differ in terms of global coherence, valence, and the free energy principle. We also explore 9 other lenses that help us analyze the strange and unique effects of these substances.
In this episode, we take the simulation pill and explore what it would mean for our reality. Once you take the pill, there is no going back, so be sure you're ready for the ride!
In this episode, we explore the idea that you don't need to choose between truth and happiness. High hedonic tone is not incompatible with one's representational accuracy of causal structures. The world, and the existence of experiential heaven and hell, can be understood without curling into a ball and crying your way to sleep. More so, effective and persistent action towards the good requires that you don't believe in this false dichotomy, for sustainable altruistic productivity necessitates both accurate models and positive motivations. Thus, the aspiring paradise engineer ought to be willing to take the Purple Pill to move onwards.…
In this episode, we discuss the idea of developing a "psychedelic language" based on QRI paradigms and recent experience reports. We suggest that a fruitful strategy for pointing at a whole family of psychedelic effects comes in the form of "field operators" that change the qualitative properties of our experiential fields. We provide a detailed description of what we call the "world-sheet" of experience and how it encodes emotional and semantic content in its very structure.…
In this episode, we explore the difference between happiness and meaning, and why so many people believe that meaning is better than happiness. We discuss the concept of "the tyranny of the intentional object", which refers to the tendency for the mind to believe that what it wants is semantically meaningful experiences. In reality, what we want under the surface is to avoid negative valence and achieve sustainable positive valence states of consciousness. We explain how evolution has "hooked us" on particular sources of pleasure in such a way that this is not introspectively accessible to us, and how this often results in us failing to recognize our own addictive tendencies. We also provide our current thoughts on the nature of meaning, explaining that it is made of "felt-senses" that have particular properties, such as high levels of intention, coherence of attention field lines, and a high potential to affect valence. We caution against meaning abuse, and advise listeners to take advantage of opportunities for high levels of meaning, but not to rely on them and think they are universal.…
In this episode, we discuss some states of consciousness in which the individual has more control over the contents of their experience. We explore the idea of having an "experience editor" which would enable more conscious exploration of our possible states. We also consider the implications of knowing everything about our world-simulation, and how this knowledge does not have to lead to boredom.…
In this episode, we take a serious look at the question of why there is something rather than nothing. We explore the idea of Zero Ontology, which postulates that the multiverse is implied by the preservation of "zero information". In order to understand Zero Ontology, we need to do some conceptual groundwork. We walk the listener through several concepts that make the question go from "impossible to answer" or even "meaningless" to something that at least conceivably seems possible to solve.…
In this episode, we explore the idea that there are many undiscovered states of consciousness that are unique and irreducible. We discuss how this framework can help us understand unique scents, and how the receptor affinity profiles of drugs, drug cocktails, and drug schedules can give rise to unique states of mind. We also reflect on how a productive mindset is likely to be High Entropy Alloy-like because it requires the careful balance between many different facets of the mind.…
In this episode, we explore sleep paralysis and some of the strange experiences that can occur during this state. We also share tips for how to get out of a sleep paralysis if you find yourself trapped in one.
In this episode, we explore the universal plot of reality, which is the highest level of narrative that determines what is "relevant to the plot" at any given point in time. We discuss how this framework allows us to re-interpret and unify all previous "scales of moral/conceptual development". In turn, it makes solving disagreements in a principled way possible.…
In this episode, we explore how graph analysis can be used to control the spread of contagious diseases. We discuss the difference between the aesthetic of pure math vs. applied statistics when it comes to making sense of graphs, and how this can be applied to identifying people with a high centrality in social networks. We also talk about the Klout score, and how it can be used to prioritize who to quarantine or vaccinate first. Finally, we explore the network properties that made the plague spread so slowly in the Middle Ages, and how this can be applied to other planets with similar conditions.…
In this episode, we explore the question of why DMT feels so real. We explain that it has to do with the way that DMT alters our senses and emotions, as well as our ability to organize models of reality. We also discuss the fact that DMT can give us powerful hallucinations in every modality, which can make it seem like we are experiencing a completely different reality.…
What would it be like to have a scent-based medium of thought, with grammar, generative syntax, clauses, subclauses, field geometry, and intentionality? How do we go about exploring the full state-space of scents (or any other qualia variety)?
In this episode, we explore the concept of "phenomenal time", which is the feeling of time passing. We discuss how this is different from physical time, and how Albert Einstein's discovery of the connection between space, time, mass, and gravity has led to a greater understanding of the ways in which time can manifest. We also explore the idea of "exotic phenomenal time" experiences, which include oddities such as time-loops, moments of eternity, time branching, and time reversal. Finally, we explain these exotic experiences with a model we call the "pseudo-time arrow", which involves implicit causality in the network of sensations we experience on each "moment of experience".…
In this episode, we discuss the ways in which tolerance to benzodiazepines can develop, and how this can lead to extremely difficult withdrawals. We argue that the commonly held view of drug tolerance is delaying promising research avenues, such as "anti-tolerance drugs". We think that NAD+ IV therapy and flumazenil show promise for treating benzodiazepine withdrawal, and encourage people to share their experiences with these treatments.…
In this episode, we explore what it means to be responsible and sensible when confronted with the fact that pain and pleasure follow a long tail distribution? When discussing ultra-painful or ultra-blissful experiences one needs to take off the glasses we use to reason about "room temperature consciousness" and put on glasses that actually take these states with the seriousness they deserve.…
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