Collective Insights Blog by Jamie Wheal

The Quiet Despair at the End of the Gospel of Self-Actualization - An Interview With Dr. Tara Isabella Burton

But what happens when we seek stabilizing, emotionally satisfying stories that give us a cosmic location and identity without accountability to a higher purpose? What follows is a transcription from our interview with Dr. Tara Isabella Burton.

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How Neuroscience and Mysticism Help Us Better Understand Our Unconscious Mind - An Interview With Dr. Daniel Lieberman

What follows is a transcript where psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman leads us down a new path: one where we learn how to recognize the influences of the unconscious, making it an ally in helping us become the people we were meant to be.

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How Junk Science Has Shaped Our Beliefs on Female Sexuality - An Interview With Dr. Wednesday Martin

Dr. Martin presents the case that “junk science” and regressive cultural narratives have shaped our beliefs about female infidelity for centuries and that female sexual autonomy may be the most meaningful metric of gender equality.

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Why Collective Intelligence is Vital to Navigate Existential Risk Today

If we're serious both as individuals and as humanity about improving the world, it's vital that we intersect collective intelligence with the radical solutions needed to create meaningful change.

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How Grit Attributes Help us Build a Resilient Mind - An Interview With Rich Diviney

Rich Diviney, joins Jamie Wheal for a discussion surrounding the value and development of attributes. What follows is the transcript from their jam packed discussion surrounding the topics of peak performance, flow states, and optimal psychology.

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How Integral Psychology Helps us Meet the Global Meta-Crisis - An Interview With Roger Walsh, M.D. Ph.D. DHL

Dr. Roger Walsh, one of the world's leading experts on the mind, joins us to discuss how integral psychology, altered states, and spiritual practices can help us meet our current global crises while building a “bunker of light” for future generations.

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From Spiritual Guru to the Death of a Cult: Andrew Cohen’s Untold Story

Andrew Cohen, international spiritual teacher and founder of Evolutionary Enlightenment, a spiritual community which became a proper cult, joins us today to discuss the death and rebirth of his community and self.

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The Neuroscience, Psychology and Physiology of Sexual Behavior

Nicole Prause Ph.D., neuroscientist researching human sexual behavior, addiction, and the physiology of sexual response, debunks popular misconceptions about the science of sex.

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How Psychedelic Compounds Improve Your Brain's Plasticity - An Interview With Julie Holland, MD

Dr. Julie Holland Holland takes us on a deep dive into the science behind psychedelic compounds that modulate neuroplasticity and how plant medicines are being used to effectively heal trauma and nurture connection.

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Combating the Meta-Crisis With Emergent Communities and Radical Hope - An Interview With Nick Farr

With each hurricane, earthquake or armed conflict, the fragility of our systems becomes evident while the consequences of their failure bleeds across borders. The solution? Nick proposes closing the gap in six crucial areas.

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Exploring Psychedelics and the Mystical - An Interview With Christopher Bache

Christopher Bache shares his courageous and outrageous thought experiments and lived experience with therapeutic psychedelics and his inquiry into the mystical. He brings his interdisciplinary set of frameworks ranging from comparative religion to transpersonal psychology, to his own lived experience of what were the types and classifications and categories of experiences he had. 

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Exploring Global Systems Through the Lens of Indigenous Thinking - An Interview With Tyson Yunkaporta

Tyson Yunkaporta, academic, author, and a researcher who belongs to the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, joins us today to discuss how Indigenous wisdom can help change the world for the better.

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Understanding Non-Ordinary Experiences, Psychedelics and Our Reality: An Interview With Dennis McKenna

In this episode Dennis McKenna shares his professional and personal stories and discoveries on the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and natural psychedelics. 

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Reframing The Stigma Surrounding Death and End of Life Experiences: An Interview With BJ Miller, MD

BJ Miller, hospice and palliative care doctor at the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Center and the co-author of the book "A Beginner's Guide To The End: Practical Advice For Living Life And Facing Death, joins us today to discuss a topic that is often avoided at all costs: death. 

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Exploring Self-Actualization for Greater Happiness: An Interview With Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D

In this episode Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D, humanistic psychologist, cognitive scientist, and educational philosopher joins us to dive deep into the topic of self-actualization for greater happiness.

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How to Define Gnosticism: An Interview with Erik Davis

Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, and scholar with a wide-ranging focus including the intersection of alternative religion, media, and the popular imagination. Today he talks about the mystic gnostic nature of American spirituality and how essential to Gnosticism is the direct experiential awakening, more than simply knowledge of spiritual mysteries. Erik’s scholarly and popular essays on music, technoculture, drugs, and spirituality have appeared in scores of books, magazines, and journals, and his writing has been translated into a dozen languages. 

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An Exploration of Religion: An Interview with Brian Muraresku

Founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and author of “The Immortality Key”, Brian Muraresku, joins us today. He shares the inspiration that led to writing his debut book. He also shares an inside look at Jesuit traditions, Kairos retreat experiences, and what triggered his interest into mysticism and accelerated dreams.

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Psychedelic Research at MAPS: An Interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D.

Founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Rick Doblin shares with us the latest news on MAPS main project regarding  MDMA assisted-psychotherapy for PTSD. We explore how we can utilize psychedelics in mainstream medicine to move these powerful tools into wider use.

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Explaining Neurochemistry & Emotions: An Interview with Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., top cited scientist for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience, joins us today as she shares some insights about her book, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. She expands on her famous TED talk in this discussion as she further explains how neuroscience reveals how our brains work and construct all of our experiences. She shares that what we see, hear and feel is very different from the way we experience it.

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How to Make Viral & Ethical Content: An Interview with Tim Urban of WaitButWhy

Famous content creator, whose TED talk reached over 10 million views, Tim Urban joins us today.  He is  a writer, illustrator and co-founder of Wait But Why. Today he shares with us his story in finding his niche and discovering his passion for creating content for Wait But Why thru using stick figures as his way of illustration. He also talks about innovative ways to sustain yourself in the world of content creation.

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Neuroscience & Experiences: An Interview with Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D.

American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor, Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D. shares his dedication to human flourishing and his story of getting fascinated with outer space, inner space (the brain), and nature that led to the formation of his career in neuroscience. We dive into why the brain is such a complex system and how experience is the foundation of electrical or molecular simulation. 

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Ethnobotany & Psychedelics: An Interview with Wade Davis

Wade Davis joins Jamie Wheal to share the indigenous practices using plant medicines that are highly relevant to today’s world and are still in use in modern indigenous cultures. There is a long history of psychedelic plant medicines, rituals and shamanic practices. Wade sheds light on the rich history of psychedelics in the Americas and the scientific research that started the ‘psychedelic era.’

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The Ethics of Technology and the Future: An Interview with Douglas Rushkoff

Futurist media theorist, author, podcast host, and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, Douglas Rushkoff joins Jamie Wheal to share the emergence of crypto fascism among QAnon, left-wing conspiracies, the new thought plandemic, digital memes as occult sigils, and the end of the world.

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The Science of Dating: An Interview with Helen Fisher

Sexologist and anthropologist, Helen Fisher, Ph.D. joins Jamie Wheal in this interview. She was at Rutgers Univestiry and Kinsey institute, and she is the Chief Science Officer of match.com. Fisher is the leading voice of how we mate and date. She shares the surprising insight that there has been no culture that aligns how we ought to be and how we want to be in regards to relationships, romance and sex. She shares about her own relationships, and shares why she thinks millennials are so smart with how they date in a method she calls slow love. Read on to learn more.

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Tools for Trauma: An Interview with Dr. Gabor Maté

What do we do now to create a world where human needs get met? On this HomeGrown Humans episode, physician and renowned addiction expert, Dr. Gabor Maté, joins Jamie Wheal for a timely and relevant conversation on trauma. Dr. Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. Dr. Maté sheds light on the importance of awareness and compassion for oneself and others. Disempowerment and passivity is bad for your health.

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