Danny Jones Podcast #376 - Exiled Neuroscientist: “The Vatican Tried to Recruit Me” | Mario Beauregard
Mar 6, 2026
Mario Beauregard, cognitive neuroscientist and author studying consciousness and mystical experiences. He recounts childhood mystical visions, near-death transformation, and why he left Canada. He describes the Carmelite nuns brain study, challenges to the seizure explanation, encounters with big institutions, and a post-materialist view of consciousness as nonphysical information.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Childhood Mystical Experience Shaped Career
- Mario Beauregard had a mystical experience at age eight where he felt everything vibrating and realized he was part of a unified oneness.
- That experience “downloaded” a life mission: become a brain scientist and lead a post-materialist scientific movement.
How Science Became Materialist
- Modern science split off from spirituality centuries ago under pressure from the Vatican, which encouraged studying only the material world.
- Founding scientists accepted that division to survive while remaining personally religious, shaping the materialist bias in science.
Pharma Contract Hid Negative PET Results
- Mario ran a PET study for Pfizer in 1994 testing an Alzheimer's memory drug and found negative neurochemical results.
- The contract barred him from publishing negative findings, and the company later launched the drug Aricept despite his data.
