Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Andrés Gómez-Emilsson: The Science of New States of Consciousness

166 snips
Feb 26, 2025
Guest
Andrés Gómez Emilsson
Andrés Gómez Emilsson, director of the Qualia Research Institute and pioneer in the study of consciousness, shares his insights on the nature of awareness. He discusses the transformative potential of psychedelics and how they intersect with meditation practices. The concept of the self as a series of experiences is explored, alongside the significance of happiness versus meaning. Emilsson emphasizes the role of sensory resonance in shaping perception and the ethical implications of engineering happiness, presenting a thought-provoking dialogue on consciousness.
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INSIGHT

Self vs. Sense of Self

  • The sense of self is a feature of experience, removable through practices like meditation.
  • Awakening involves transforming how attention is directed and features are bound, culminating in a no-self state.
INSIGHT

Model Accuracy and Self

  • Model accuracy is judged by predictive power.
  • A sense of a permanent metaphysical self is inaccurate because interventions can alter it.
INSIGHT

Field, Time, and Epistemology

  • While individual lives are temporally limited within the atemporal field, science aims to understand the whole.
  • Epistemological optimism suggests we can infer the field's nature from experience dynamics, improving with diverse states.
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