Marvellous Mind

Just straight riffin on the phenomena of ego death, a thoroughly mysterious process that can be induced through the use of psychedelics and mindfulness techniques (or of course a combination of the two). This can be a disorientating process to experience, as it involves a radical departure from the familiar and a merging with the ‘mystery’, or the universe. In other words, it’s a directly experien...

Originally recorded on the 5th October 2023 Here's a nice discussion into how psychedelics can be used as a tool for self-exploration with Kara, pres of the Warwick psychedelic research society. We cover a lot of ground here so I hope you find benefit from listening! (apologies for the audio quality) You can find warwick psychedelic on instagram @warwickpsychedelic and on spotify: https://open...

Introducing the first Marvellous Mind podcast discussion with my long-time friend Sam! Here we talk about our own experiences with meditation and the topics of mental health, psychedelics, self-discovery and philosophical/ scientific inquiry into the nature of reality. This was an absolute thrill to record and I hope you guys find as much benefit as I did from this conversation. Photo is of Indian...

Just a little dance around some topics relating to consciousness , the ego and the essence of what it means to identify with egoic thought structures. As man like Seneca once said "we suffer more in imagination than in reality". #psychedelic #spirituality #philosophy #metaphysics #consciousness #mindfulness #meditation #psychology

Exploring the depths of self worth and the quest for completeness, this video delves into our innate feelings of insufficiency. From childhood experiences to societal pressures and evolutionary instincts, our consciousness can become conditioned into feeling that it is not enough as it currently is. The conditioning is a product of thought, thought which fragments and dissociates us from the authe...

Here I do a cheeky inquiry into the present moment, exploring how reality seems to manifest within this infinitely small quantum we label as the "present". #mindfulness #meditation #philosophy #nonduality

We often feel that peace and happiness are to be found in objects outside of us. That we can become happy only from arranging our external environments in just the right kind of way. Happiness is thereby seen as something to acquire and possess, rather than simply a mode of being in the world. This video dispels the illusory nature of attaching wholeness to the acquisition of external things, whic...

Who are you really? Throughout our lives we are conditioned into a sense of self that is constituted, ultimately, by thought and memory. Here I try to entertain the idea that our “true self” transcends this. That is, rather than being just a “homo sapien” with a certain age, gender or nationality - you are also something that transcends the finite categorisation of our thought structures. Thought,...

In this episode, we confront society's double standards on substance use. While enjoying a drink with friends is seen as harmless fun, those who use other psychoactives are instantly branded as 'drug users' on a path of self-destruction. We explore how cultural conditioning has instilled a skewed perspective of addiction as the inevitable outcome of drug consumption - a misconception w...

Ever feel like you're playing a role, online or off? This video explores "somebody training," a concept from Ram Dass, and talks about finding our true selves beneath the personas we put on. Join us as we discuss social media, self-perception and the idea of non-duality. It's all about asking: "Who am I really?" Timestamps: 0:00 - The conditioning of somebodiness 2:06 -...

time is just a concept bro *smacks zoot* 0:00 - intro waffle (skip if fancy) 0:58 - the primacy of the present 2:00 - the perception of time 2:58 - the past and future are abstract not concrete 4:54 - the recognition of presence 5:33 - the present moment is the Mystery #consciousness #attention #mindfulness #present #philosophy #meditation #time

I talk about what it is, how ya do it plus other insights I’ve gleaned from my 5 yrs of (semi) regular practice. U should watch if ur goal in life is to become a cool hippie yogi, or if u simply want to become more present in ur everyday experience :)

Attention acts as our cognitive spotlight, enhancing specific elements of our experiences while pushing others into the background. It's a dynamic process that facilitates concentration and learning but can also cause anxiety and overthinking if not balanced with restful mindfulness. By exploring and practicing mindful attention, we can enrich our lives, strengthen our cognitive skills, and ga...

A short clip from my recent podcast episode on Psychedelics, sketching out what I find to be the most mysterious and interesting elements of our human experience.

Through the deconditioning of our habitual thought patterns, psychedelics can offer glimpses into a non-conceptual, spontaneous and intuitive way of engaging with the world, akin to an infant’s perception or the Zen concept of ‘shoshin’. What this speaks to is the primacy of direct experience, which so often is concealed by a hypnotic attachment of attention to the conceptual thinking mind. Buildi...

Psychedelics confront us directly with the Mystery, raising deep questions regarding who we are, the nature of reality, and that cosmic itch of what the hell is going on anyways! Naturally, I find these compounds endlessly fascinating for they facilitate deep explorations into one's inner psychological world and how we cognize everything. I have personally found my relationships with the world...

a chat in the woods about the many rooms in the palace of Mind #psychedelic #spirituality #philosophy #metaphysics #consciousness #mindfulness #meditation #psychology

I talk about how thoughts are basically notifications in your conscious experience + other funky stuff

Thumbnail credit: Al Margen Pagina at 22:47 I forget to say endquote to the Anna Lembke quote I reference! Just wanna say so it doesn't seem like I'm inappropriately attributing stuff to Dr Lembke Perhaps my most controversial episode so I may ruffle some feathers here!  Essentially this is a discussion on the absurdity of the 'drug' taboo and how drug laws represent a profound mor...

(you might wanna skip the first min or so if you don't wanna hear my waffly pre-amble about the podcast) Attention can be thought of as the central locus of our conscious experience, its processes precede many of our most deliberate and conscious engagements with the world. What we attend to is highly deterministic of what we do - through using the metacognitive tools of 'attending to attention' (...

This episode delves into the deep philosophical question of who we are exactly? How have we been sculptured by evolutionary forces into the beings we are today? Understanding humans as the Darwinian product of 3.5 billion years of selection can shed light on the function of many facets of our cognition and behaviour. Viewing certain faculties as adaptations to recurrent evolutionary problems can e...

Discussion of personality psychology, different methods of categorising and measuring personality, outline of the 'Big 5 factor model' of personality : extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and agreeableness. I also explain how personality orients your perceptual frame of the world and biases your attention and behaviour. There is a brief discussion of how personality rela...

What it is like to be an experiencing being, what exactly is this weird thing we call consciousness? How does consciousness relates to the physical, i.e. the world of neurons and brain networks? Here I touch upon some of the deep philosophical problems that arise when we try to understand consciousness (The hard problem, the problem of other minds). I try to sketch out how we can understand consci...

Discussion on the nature of human happiness, different cultural interpretations, methods of measurement as well as different philosophical perspectives on what happiness means to the human subject. I hope you find this beneficial, if you have any queries, episode suggestions or criticisms please don't hesitate to comment or contact me at marvellous.mind.podcast@gmail.com 00:00 - intro 00:39 -...