Closer To Truth

Understanding the nature of transcendence requires careful experimentation and innovative ways to reveal essence and tease out aspects of aesthetics. What are key characteristics of transcendence? Tracking imperceptible eye movements, or brain blood flow during mental activity, reflect neural activity, which is always ready to spring surprise.   Featuring interviews with Elisabeth Schellekens, Hel...

There is an idea that shakes the core of our scientific principles: That our consciousness participates in creating our physical reality. It’s an idea that runs counter to the materialist worldview we’re all taught in school. But the outer edges of scientific inquiry bleed into what can only be called ‘magic.’ With a uniquely science-backed approach, parapsychologist Dean Radin explores the "magic...

Mathematics describes the real world of atoms and acorns, stars and stairs, with remarkable precision. So is mathematics invented by humans—like chisels and hammers and pieces of music? Or is mathematics discovered—always out there, somewhere, like mysterious islands waiting to be found? Whenever mathematics is will help define reality itself.   Featuring interviews with Roger Penrose, Stephen Wol...

Compare inner-life practices among diverse religions/traditions. Islamic prayer as the core of Muslim belief. Buddhist meditation calms the mind. Hindu meditation can be theistic-devotional or non-dual inner exploration. Embodied practices in Chinese traditions.     Featuring interviews with Helen De Cruz, Venerable Dr. Yifa, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Franklin Perkins, Aaron Segal, and Hamza Yusuf.

This holiday season, support Closer To Truth with a tax-deductible donation of any amount.   What is intelligence, and how is AI emergence a natural consequence of evolution? In his book "What Is Intelligence?" and in this conversation, Google's Blaise Agüera y Arcas takes up the idea that prediction is fundamental not only to intelligence and the brain but to life itself, and explores the wide-ra...

Giving Tuesday is around the corner! Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   How do diverse religions/traditions treat the “person,” present status and afterlife future? Buddhism’s no self. Hinduism’s soul illuminating the mind. Prior lives in Eastern and African traditions. Body and soul, resurrection and judg...

Make a donation to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   The Ruliad is a term that Stephen Wolfram developed, which he describes as the entangled limit of everything that is computationally possible, the result of following all possible computational rules in all possible ways.   Stephen Wolfram is a British-American computer scienti...

This giving season, contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.     Concepts of God/deities/ultimates in diverse, non-Western religions/traditions: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, African. Is God/deities a “person?” Islam’s one transcendent God. Hinduism’s many schools: personal, impersonal, both. Buddhism’s no God but many deities.     Featuring in...

Support the show with a tax-deductible donation of any amount so we can continue exploring the world's biggest questions without the need for paywalls.   When the long-awaited day dawns and the aliens finally arrive on Earth, they might eat us and destroy the planet―or, just maybe, they might share the secrets of the Universe with us. When that time comes, will we be able to cross the communicatio...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   What happens after we die? Is there life after death? If so, what kind of life? From heaven and hell to systems and cycles of reincarnation, we explore Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Chinese traditions, as well as Christianity.   Featuring interviews with Hamza Y...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.     How do different religions/traditions address consciousness, our inner mental awareness? Is consciousness ultimate, as in Eastern traditions, or created by God, as in Abrahamic traditions? If ultimate, what is the relationship between personal and cosmic consciousness?...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq   In the first two installments of a brand new, six-part interview series with Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose, we explore his approach to the deep nature of reality. Trace the intellectual and scientific history of each of his major contributions...

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Mathematics is like nothing else. The truths of math seem to be unrelated to anything else—independent of human beings, independent of the universe. The sum of 2 + 3 = 5 cannot not be true; this means that 3 + 2 = 5 would be true even if there were never any human being...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Global Philosophy of Religion seeks diverse views and fresh ways of thinking from different religions/traditions about Ultimate Questions: God, consciousness, person/self, evil/suffering, afterlife/reincarnation, world to come. It does not avoid hard differences; it celeb...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram explores how simple rules can generate complex realities, offering a bold new vision of fundamental physics and the structure of the universe. Additionally, from the foundations of cellular automata to the discovery of surp...

If you enjoy our content, consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Humanity’s future is now framed by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing interventions in the body to enhance features and functions. This is transhumanism. Considering the stakes, and the dangers, a philosophical perspective is impe...

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.     What is the three-way relationship among mind, art, and transcendence? What is it about art that can elicit the sense of transcendence, going beyond the self, bursting the constraining bonds of semantic language? What is it about transcendence that it can be expressed b...

Make a donation of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.   Sexual questions abound. What is “normal” sexual behavior in light of diverse sexual variations? LGBTQ+ issues? Is sex in animal models relevant for human sexuality? A philosophical perspective can provide clarity.   Featuring interviews with Nathan Lents, Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, Lis...

Contribute what you can to support Closer To Truth and keep our content free without the need for paywalls.   Many people believe that out-of-the-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs) are real. We do not assess the evidence and arguments, pro or con. We do explore what OBEs and NDEs would mean, if real, for theories of consciousness.   This episode features interviews with Bern...

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Two kinds of questions probe evolution vs. religion. The first explores discrepancies, even contradictions, between the science of evolution and the beliefs of religion. The second examines how religion itself evolved.   Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Michae...

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.   Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and astrobiologist, discusses the idea of something rather than nothing, differing religious worldviews, fine tuning and metaphysics, and more.   Watch more CTT Chats here .   Dr. Clément Vidal is a philosopher with a background in logic and cognitive sciences....

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.   What can evolution reveal about the developmental history of thinking and feeling? How did cognition and emotion (affect) co-develop over evolutionary time? Can evolution help solve the mystery of consciousness?   Featuring interviews with Peter Godfrey-Smith, S. Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, De...

Make a contribution of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring life's deepest questions.   Dr. Mark Bailey writes about the intersection between artificial intelligence, complexity, and national security. He is an associate professor at the National Intelligence University, where he is the Department Chair for Cyber Intelligence and Data Science, as well as the Director of the Data S...

What is “human” nature? While human beings are animals, we believe we are special, radically different from other animals. Why? What traits are unique to humans? Are we sure? How to explore human nature from an evolutionary perspective?     Featuring interviews with Quayshawn Spencer, Alexander Rosenberg, Massimo Pigliucci, Rachell Powell, Helen De Cruz, Paul E. Griffiths, and John Dupré.   Make a...

Donate any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   How do we define a soul? Can AI become consciousness? Julia Mossbridge discusses these questions along with the main trends in parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, and ESP research over the last decade.   Dr. Julia Mossbridge is an American cognitive neuroscientist, auth...