Iain McGilchrist: The Coincidence of Opposites

Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things. He focuses especially upon the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum), which he explores (providing an extraordinary range of illustrative examples) in such a way as to make manifest both its universality and its particular relevance to our present historical moment.
The event took place online on October 26th, 2021.
Artists, Art, and Writings Mentioned in this Episode
Iroquoian Cosmology
Charles Sanders Peirce
Niehls Bohr
Friedrich Hölderlin
Goethe
Heraclitus
Alan Watts
Upanishads
William Blake
Jacob Needleman
Hegel
Alfred North Whitehead
M.C. Escher, “Angels and Devils”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ryōan-ji Zen Garden
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Carl Jung
Ochwiay Biano
William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”
Sam Johnson
Laurence Sterne
William Wordsworth
David Olive (physicist)
William Empson
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Joseph Campbell
Empedocles
F.W.J von Schelling
Kabbalah
Aristotle, concept of “phronesis”
Louis Pasteur
Pierre Curie
William James
Wilfred Owen, “Strange Meeting”
Jonathan Sacks
Franz Schubert, String Quartet in C Major
The Sophists
Protagoras
Immoderate Greatness, William Ophuls
Oedipus Rex
Jesus, “The Lord’s Prayer”
Links of possible interest:
Channel McGilchrist
channelmcgilchrist.com/
The Matter With Things (soon available elsewhere)
www.bookdepository.com/Matter...
www.amazon.com/Matter-Things-...
Ralston College
www.ralston.ac
Ralston College Short Courses
www.ralston.ac/humanities-sho...
Stephen Blackwood
www.stephenjblackwood.com/
Timeline
0:00 - Introduction
4:44 - McGilchrist’s Lecture
1:05:44 - Q and A
#RalstonCollege

[@RalstonCollegeSavannah]

Applications for Ralston College's MA in the Humanities for 2023 are now open: www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma

[@zadasorrell7191]

I am a 45 year old pastry chef, doula, housewife, not a serious student of Hegel and Heidegger. I have been near tears for much of this lecture. One thing that comes to mind is something I have told my children when they are really getting on my nerves and I have responded angrily and must apologize: What drives me most crazy about you is also the thing I most admire in you. My daughter is intuitive or overly sensitive. My son is creative, effective or disaster making/annoying. It was a wonderful thing to realize about people in general. McGilchrist and Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau and others like them are truly shining beacons in our dark times.

[@spiralsun1]

I am right there with you my dear. So beautifully said that it made me cry!! ❤️‍🔥🙏🏻💯🌎 To see people as instruments on your life-ship not tools or obstacles. Life is a conversation with god. 🥰♾

[@9-0-55]

Wonderful paradox

[@BrendonTristal]

For Ai pioneer info follow Stuart Russell

[@ACuriousChild]

@@spiralsun1 Could not agree more with you, Zada, Ian and all creation. God is having a conversation with himself through his creation as long as "his creation" is tuning into HIS wavelength. Thank you wonderful beings!

[@leesarenee5757]

Hear hear.

[@LS-qu7yc]

I have listened to this man for hours and hours… the 27 hour audio book and numerous 2+ hour podcasts and lectures. I am always better off every single time. Iain’s work has helped my mental health tremendously and I am so so grateful. He has explained our collective situation in ways my right brain could not make sense of. I love him. I can’t wait to read the new book!

[@LeonGalindoStenutz]

What a beautiful message. Thanks for being so open and sharing and expressive. I have just 'discovered' his videos -- and existence. Will be taking a deeper dive, thanks for amping up the motivation to do so.

[@francescopili7107]

Thank you ❤

[@user-lu9hq6jv4v]

I agree; I just found him and fell in love...

[@LS-qu7yc]

@@user-lu9hq6jv4v I’m as happy for you as I am for myself for finding him. His book The Master and His Emissary changed me and I’m forever indebted. I just bought his new book and cannot wait to read it (all year if I have to 😂)

[@plaiche]

Did you catch his discussion with Kurt Jaimungal here on YT? It is a 3+ hr barnburner that is really mind-blowing (even for him).

[@NannaCarlstedt2]

"Love that grounds the Universe", very fine words; thank you for sharing!

[@behnaz5097]

Oh ...i was in such a dark place ,when i start listening to you ,and suddenly all darkness melted away and i remembered that life is always like this ,up and down ,love and and hate,so it is all for growth, no matter what. Thank you,thank you for reminding me the purpose of life....thank you

[@LS-qu7yc]

I had read his book and listened to him lecture over a year ago and now I can’t imagine the confusion I was in prior. I highly recommend The Master and His Emissary. I don’t go so dark anymore. Can’t wait to read his new books!!

[@LeonGalindoStenutz]

@@LS-qu7yc Thank you for sharing! Truly.

[@jordanedgeley6601]

Goosebumps 😁

[@drahcirnevarc9152]

He taught me English Lit A-level 40 years ago, when he was fresh down from Oxford. He was a very, very nice man, and a bit naughty too. He used to drive two or three of us out to a country pub for a cheeky pint while he gave us our tutorial.

[@everythingflows3639]

I can just imagine it. Depressingly, it's more difficult to imagine a teacher like him these days.

[@drahcirnevarc9152]

@@everythingflows3639 So true.

[@hawkarae]

Before I've even listened I am grateful that synchronicity ALWAYS provides the next bread crumb on my journey back to self. Thank you for sharing this conversation! *Wow. Has anyone ever spoken truer, more prescient words?*

[@goawqebt6931]

Synchronicity is not a thing

[@robertp5998]

Perhaps Jordan Peterson who interviewed Iain several times and now I'm here.

[@Ac-ip5hd]

@@goawqebt6931 How so, the true definition of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence) involves supplied, or perceived interaction of meaning with chance. It's 99% of the time a moment of insight in which meaning and resonance are found in unlikely patterns, and may involve more than the KZbin algorithm (ie: internal thoughts and other thinkers being read by the person, life events etc, and moments of that being desiussed in a way she was unaware of McgilChrist going on about.) The intuitive aspects of the brain, activation of hippocampal regions, superstitious and personified ways of thinking in CEO's, athletes (and even societies under duress) who need to problem solve in real time while under duress are lining up with many studies on primitive and magical thinking. I would agree that the algortithm would play a major role here, and that there is a reasonable explanation for 99.9% of sychchronistic phenomenon. I would further argue that many synchronistic, or "supernatural" phenomenon that we do not currently have an explanation for, will one day be explanable (and likely open new lines of inquiry.) I think having a psychological/mythological script of mythology and astrology for a culture following those religious beliefs, and a mythical ecology of personified aspects of reality would also explain a percentile of "correct" predictions in someone like Nostradamus, as well as a large number of errors, and murky areas that can't really be proven, and endlessly connected all over the place in intersectional thinking. I do think that there are certain recorded phenomenon that occur over time and space to a degree they will not so easily be explained away, and research will open up new issues. To sum up, I would agree that the term is massively misused, often in a flaky and idealistic manner, there are issues in Jung and New Age that have to be paired off, updated, and put into context with other schools of thought. These issues multiply as they trickle down to people who don't understand their own ideas (just as they do in Christianity, Conservatism, or the average left winger with a science is real t-shirt.) As the term means "meaningful coincidence" and we are coming to an area of conciliatory relationships between knowledge fields and psychology schools: you are very incorrect to completely dismiss the term and school of thought as completely wrong and valueless.

[@eliyasara9786]

@@Ac-ip5hd we got a budding philosopher and philosophical critic on his ready way into the world of semantic critique.

[@lovingyaru]

@@goawqebt6931*laughs in Jung*

[@annbrucepineda8093]

My aunt, a gourmet cook, had a simple lesson which may exemplify how opposites fulfill one another. She said every good salty or savory dish requires a pinch of sugar and every sweet dish, a pinch of salt.

[@TheFrenchNanny]

Soootrue

[@ACuriousChild]

Ann Bruce Pineda This simple lesson has more wisdom than so many empty words nowadays. Spoken by a cook is a statement by itself and speakes volumes if one listens "with" the right hemisphere of one's human brain. Life is about doing and than speaking about it. Nowadays we have it backwards, obviously in order to correct it.

[@garrettbryan2717]

This so good. You know when you have been thinking and struggling with ideas and then a smart person talks and everything becomes clear and illuminated? That just happened to me.

[@vaishalivaidya7978]

This is one of the most profound lectures...We need more instutions and academia that can talk and enable this kind of thinking...

[@kuwapa]

I am thinking of at least a forum where eenthusiastic viewers in KZbin threads for videos like this can join up to continue the conversation with others.

[@ReverendDr.Thomas]

🐟 02. A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF “LIFE”: Everything, both perceptible and imperceptible - that is, any gross or subtle OBJECT within the material universe which can ever be perceived with the cognitive faculties, plus the SUBJECT (the observer of all phenomena) - is to what most persons generally refer when they use the term “God”, since they usually conceive of the Primeval Creator as being the Perfect Person, and “God” (capitalized) is a personal epithet of the Unconditioned Absolute. However, this anthropomorphized conception of The Absolute is a fictional character of divers mythologies. According to most every enlightened sage in the history of this planet, the Ultimate Reality is, far more logically, Absolutely NOTHING, or conversely, Absolutely EVERYTHING - otherwise called “The Tao”, “The Great Spirit”, “Brahman”, “Pure Consciousness”, “Eternal Awareness”, “Independent Existence”, “The Ground of All Being”, “Uncaused Nature”, “The Undifferentiated Substratum of Reality”, “The Unified Field”, et cetera - yet, as alluded to above, inaccurately referred to as a personal deity by the masses (e.g. “God”, “Allah”, “Yahweh”, “Bhagavan”, etc.). In other words, rather than the Supreme Truth being a separate, Blissful, Supra-Conscious Being (The Godhead Himself or The Goddess), Ultimate Reality is Eternal-Existence Limitless-Awareness Unconditional-Peace ITSELF. That which can be perceived, can not be perceiving! Because the Unmanifested Absolute is infinite creative potentiality, “it” actualizes as EVERYTHING, in the form of ephemeral, cyclical universes. In the case of our particular universe, we reside in a cosmos consisting of space-time, matter and energy, without, of course, neglecting the most fundamental dimension of existence (i.e. conscious awareness - although, “it” is, being the subject, by literal definition, non-existent). Just as a knife cannot cut itself, nor the mind comprehend itself, nor the eyes see themselves, The Absolute cannot know Itself (or at least objectively EXPERIENCE Itself), and so, has manifested this phenomenal universe within Itself for the purpose of experiencing Itself, particularly through the lives of self-aware beings, such as we sophisticated humans. Therefore, this world of duality is really just a play of consciousness within Consciousness, in the same way that a dream is a person's sleeping narrative set within the life-story of an “awakened” individual. APPARENTLY, this universe, composed of “mind and matter”, was created with the primal act (the so-called “Big Bang”), which started, supposedly, as a minute, slightly uneven ball of light, which in turn, was instigated, ultimately, by Extra-Temporal Supra-Consciousness. From that first deed, every motion or action that has ever occurred has been a direct (though, almost exclusively, an indirect) result of it. Just as all the extant energy in the universe was once contained within the inchoate singularity, Infinite Consciousness was NECESSARILY present at the beginning of the universe, and is in no way an epiphenomenon of a neural network. Discrete consciousness, on the other hand, is entirely dependent on the neurological faculty of individual animals (the more highly-evolved the species, the greater its cognitive abilities). “Sarvam khalvidam brahma” (a Sanskrit maxim from the “Chandogya Upanishad”, meaning “all this is indeed Brahman” or “everything is the Universal Self alone”). There is NAUGHT but Eternal Being, Conscious Awareness, Causeless Peace - and you are, quintessentially, that! This “Theory of Everything” can be more succinctly expressed by the mathematical equation: E=A͚ (Everything is Infinite Awareness). HUMANS are essentially this Eternally-Aware-Peace, acting through an extraordinarily-complex biological organism, comprised of the eight rudimentary elements - pseudo-ego (the assumed sense of self), intellect, mind, solids, liquids, gases, heat (fire), and ether (three-dimensional space). When one peers into a mirror, one doesn't normally mistake the reflected image to be one's real self, yet that is how we humans conventionally view our ever-mutating form. We are, rather, in a fundamental sense, that which witnesses all transitory appearances. Everything which can be presently perceived, both tangible and immaterial, including we human beings, is a culmination of that primary manifestation. That is the most accurate and rational explanation for “karma” - everything was preordained from the initial spark, and every action since has unfolded as it was predestined in ETERNITY, via an ever-forward-moving trajectory. The notion of retributive (“tit-for-tat”) karma is just that - an unverified notion. Likewise, the idea of a distinct, reincarnating “soul” or “spirit” is largely a fallacious belief. Whatever state in which we currently find ourselves, is the result of two factors - our genetic make-up at conception and our present-life conditioning (which may include mutating genetic code). Every choice ever made by every human and non-human animal was determined by those two factors ALONE. Therefore, free-will is purely illusory, despite what most believe. Chapter 11 insightfully demonstrates this truism. As a consequence of residing within this dualistic universe, we experience a lifelong series of fluctuating, transient pleasures and pains, which can take the form of physical, emotional, and/or financial pleasure or pain. Surprisingly to most, suffering and pain are NOT synonymous. Suffering is due to a false sense of personal agency - the belief that one is a separate, independent author of one’s thoughts, emotions, and deeds, and that, likewise, other persons are autonomous agents, with complete volition to act, think, and feel as they wish. Another way of stating the same concept is as follows: suffering is due to the intellect being unwilling to accept life as it manifests moment by moment. There are five SYMPTOMS of suffering, all of which are psychological in nature: 1. Guilt 2. Blame 3. Pride 4. Anxiety 5. Regrets about the past and expectations for the future These types of suffering are the result of not properly understanding what was explained above - that life is a series of happenings and NOT caused by the individual living beings. No living creature, including Homo sapiens, has personal free-will. There is only the Universal, Divine Will at play, acting through every body, to which William Shakespeare famously alluded when he scribed “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” The human organism is essentially a biopsychological machine, comprised of the five gross material elements (which can be perceived with the five senses) and the three subtle material elements (the three levels of cognition, which consist of abstract thought objects), listed above. Cont...

[@siyaindagulag.]

Well , at least there is an abundance of resistance to that.....

[@MESODOXA]

This is easily - and certainly - the most beautiful lecture to which I've listened. I love and i am moved deeply by the unabashed sincerity, the grace and disposition toward human value and beauty, which roils sweetly through McGilchrist's every word. .

[@finnmacdiarmid3250]

A scholar and an incredible orator! Few people speak English this well and functionally oriented anymore these days. With great ideas must come great capability to express them.

[@robertdiggins7578]

Saddled with false dichotomies, we're easily gaslit.

[@stephenmckinnell7791]

I love this man, he simply makes me feel closer to God. It’s interesting that so many of the quotes Iain bring to us are of not of current thinkers. Thank you 🙏

[@stephenmckinnell7791]

@tama I’m not sure, it’s not conventionally religious though, but then I don’t know much about any particular religion, so it might be. I like to think it’s about a combination of Love and Wisdom.

[@matthewstokes1608]

And yet he is a Christian

[@radiopete7290]

Is it his beard?

[@bobpowers9637]

Epic lecture and answers. What a joy to experience this. In an age when polarization and technology controls us we need to be grounded in clues offered in nature, reason gained through history and attempting to gain many truths through as many perspectives as possible.

[@spiralsun1]

Fuck yes. ❤️‍🔥 Sorry for swearing. It’s like you hit the $64,000 question answer button in my heart and it startled me emotionally. 😂🤷‍♀️ TOP ANSWER ON THE BOARD!

[@kuwapa]

Yes there are obviously so many of us keenly aware of these truths in an intuitive level somehow we need to start connecting and facilitate discussions.

[@dalibofurnell]

The question towards the end about love and feeling loved is so touching. Amen I agree that no matter what you're going through, you're not alone.

[@MsDamosmum]

Listening is something I do a lot of. I’ve listened to all kinds of podcasts on a daily basis (which I can do as I work with my hands) and I’ve been doing so for the past 6 or 7 years.

[@missshroom5512]

I wish my Mom could have seen this. She always said her and I were like water and oil and we did not mix. Unfortunately it took me having raised my own children and the different stages in my life to understand her ……put down….as I seen it then. Wish I had understood we were meant to be different and that’s not bad. I love all of your work Iain ..Thankyou 👍🏼🌎💙

[@michaelweber5702]

Thank you Dr. Blackwood , Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a balm of the first order for my soul and I suspect this lovely thinker is a great joy for many who know and have heard him ... Grand indeed ...

[@NannaCarlstedt2]

"Conciousness, that´s where the way goes." Thank you!

[@thesecondlawandthetowerhou6026]

Dr Iain McGilchrist’s book, The Master and His Emissary, provides the expansive research and subtle fine-tuning helpful to create a grid of sense-making. The details and perspective dovetail with lived experience in settling ways.

[@charmewithcem4830]

A rich lecture which goes against the grain of predominant academic thought. A small step towards a more whole world.

[@advocate1563]

Wholeness and reintegration (of self and the collective) look like key priorities to me.

[@pauljorgenson3253]

Oh the drama that plays between the ears

[@kimfreeborn]

A point, a line and a circle are all a matter of perspective.

[@wendyg8536]

After setting out to find a podcast to listen to while I set about weaving some flax, it was such a beautiful surprise to hear this talk, as I pulled and pushed opposites within the weaving, uniting black and white strands together. Your conversation Iain has been warming to the heart and hands.... thank you. It would be great to hear of your explaination of the Hieros Gamos, in light of a follow on from this conversation, please.

[@hughmcdonnell849]

A physician and a metaphysician! Our culture lies gravely ill. Were we ever in more need of great Doctors like Iain. Well done Ralston.

[@jbauman1111]

Hello from upper midwest, United States. This is wildly cosmic and stunning. Thank you

[@WhiteStoneName]

Where in the upper-Midwest? Close to me? I’m in Minneapolis.

[@GingerDrums]

This man helped me to think in a more coherent way.

[@justsaying9483]

The thing with no opposite, creates all things

[@J0hnC0ltrane]

A deep and beautiful discussion. I will listen more to these Ralston presentations.

[@mirapeerance]

Thank you Iain, Stephen and Questioners. At the age of 3 score and 15 ,I want to live longer and stay well awake. The Conversation here is what we should have been talking about all along And i hope to participate a while longer. May the number of conversants grow and grow and listening improve.

[@dawnmuir5052]

Simply beautiful. Spirits lifted, heart full. Thank you again for a wonderful exposition of your profound and illuminating ideas, Dr. McGilchrist.

[@advocate1563]

Quite extraordinary lecture. Mr McGilchrist has truly sharpened his saw in a quite magnificent way. What he has to say would have found a ready audience and an instinctive "yes, of course" in an earlier culture within my own 60 year span. We instinctively know the world is complex, mystical and ,"held" in the transcendant. Sadly his findings and conclusions are far more controversial in 2021. The audience questions were searching. I was as delighted as was McGilchrist.

[@cecilcharlesofficial]

Yes, thankfully he's saying these truths now, and we're witnessing a reemergence of people like Alan Watts (from 60 years ago) via youtube - the world is waking up.

[@katiatrost3759]

Awesome lecture- Iain McGilchrist has a very rare talent of understanding integration.

[@JohnAllenWatts]

So appreciative of Dr. McGilchrist's vast catolog of videos. Each one is a gem, or rather a facet of a holistic wisdom. This idea of everything becoming its opposite was well articulated by the spiritual teacher, G.I. Gurdjieff. There are no straight lines or paths in nature or in any endeavor for that matter or worthy goal. The means to avoid the automatic turning back into its own opposite of any well-intentioned venture something from the outside must be brought into the system, what Gurdjieff called.a "conscious" shock. I find this quite precisely what Dr. McGilchrist is suggesting about a different kind of awareness being necessary (from or coming through the right hemisphere of course). Just a very brief treatment of this very profound idea but offered as food for exploration if it resonates with anyone.

[@austinlaswell8143]

I made the same analogy about the opposite states of physics. I both understand and do not understand the pattern of opposites which is the pattern within the pattern. Made me laugh when I thought about it. The Divine Comedy.

[@Bartisim0]

How fortunate we are to live in a time when the antidote to a problem created by a technology can be delivered by the same mechanism. Thank you gentlemen for an enlivening dialogue.

[@cecilcharlesofficial]

that's because the problem wasn't created by technology - it's the natural state of our human minds, driven to name and categorize a world that can't be named and categorized. Except that it can, mostly, be named and categorized. But only mostly. That's why technology works so well and yet never solves the psychological / existential dilemma.

[@richardmartinbishop]

Thank you to everyone involved in this.

[@williamjmccartan8879]

Depth and width of this was extraordinary, thank you both Stephen and Iian.

[@fadista7063]

I always enjoy listening to this author, regardless the venue. Looking forward to reading his books.

[@laurabruch6981]

In awe and gratitude … as a lifelong humanities teacher with knowledge in Campbell and Jung, Freire and Many other contemporaries… I feel so validated by my passion and emphasis in teaching students how to think and feel ❤ And yes ending on Love was divine! I am a firm believer that Love is always the answer to any question

[@SpiritusBythos]

Thank you! Worth a second listen. Permaculture experts speak of action at the edegelines. After noticing it is very hard not to see it everywhere. Peace Love Gratitude

[@siyaindagulag.]

I've mulched on top of gravel to allow grasses to take . After thinning the larger chunks , I see that patch shrinking , edgelines, as you call them , slowly encroaching.

[@sylviekaiser1064]

Love it how when Dr Mcgilchrist cites the adolescent anxiety/happiness study between 1930-2007- the interviewer just moves on to the next question- when this is clearly an important and elucidating point that deserves not only to be blasted out on all social media and pondered and discussed to find viable(since we’re talking about suicide and loss of meaning) solutions to this very real western societal malaise(for lack of a better word)

[@angelotuteao6758]

Reconciled so many aspects of spirituality that I’ve struggled with as a student of Eastern philosophy- deep gratitude for posting this lucid exploration of polarities

[@seesawdesigntv]

This was a wonderful lecture. I found it so thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing it!

[@ilconviviodimira4478]

Thank you so much for this beautiful talk and dialogué afterwards!

[@ZakBellinger]

Beautifully constructed lecture. Not a word out of place. Each sentence could incentivize an essay, certainly. Thank you doctor for your research and curiosity.

[@peterjones6507]

Excellent talk. Thus the mystics say we live in a world of opposites and Nicolas de Cusa in his Divine Vision tells us 'He lies beyond the coincidence of contradictories'. Thus also the Buddhist doctrine of 'Two Truths' and the 'calculus of indications' (distinctions') of George Spencer Brown. It's odd that a psychologist can be so much better at philosophy than most philosophy professors.

[@suzannecranny9838]

Thank you so much for this, from a poorly educated but questioning granny. Food for thought

[@marietjieluyt7619]

Such an incredible relief to listen to Dr McGilchrist. Thank you so much for posting this discussion.

[@joec8079]

Alan Watts brought me here, not disappointed

[@Dialogos1989]

One of the few contemporary books I’d recommend everyone read is the master and his emissary.

[@gedofgont1006]

Simply marvellous! An entire curriculum could be built around the thoughts and writings of this man.

[@TheGrubby96]

This is a joke and yet it is also not a joke?

[@gedofgont1006]

@@TheGrubby96 it's whatever you want it to be.

[@mariavandingenen222]

I listened to this podcast on enantiodromia today and the article just posted from Radio NZ media was there. Te ao Māori, Jung, your work Iain McGilchrist, the zen wise ones and Sufi teachers, these things I love most alongside all weather, all land and sea and air forms, and my beautiful children and grandchildren. Thank you Ralston college, thank you Iain McGilchrist, with profound love and hope.

[@evo1ov3]

That's a beautiful metaphor that love is like two heavenly bodies. That you don't want crashing into other or flying off. But to contemplate the connection. Remembering that one.

[@2530negri]

Absolutely wonderful and incredibly fascinating lecture. Thank you

[@JiminiCrikkit]

Wonderful. I've been banging on about this principle for nearly 30 years to friends or anyone who I think might be receptive. Excellent to hear.

[@bobcissell188]

Interesting how Greek Gods were often such devils. Now I get it. Thank you, Iian.

[@spiralsun1]

Thank you for your service as a veteran in the true understanding wars. Seriously, thank you. I have children. I want them to be happy and have a future and stuff like that. Not joking at all. 🙏🏻❤️‍🔥

[@jameseverett4976]

@@spiralsun1 the sad thing is that without some kind of problems in their life, they won't be able to appreciate it. This is the mighty fail that has befallen the last few generations, and many have no capacity to appreciate what they have, though they have more and better than anyone in history. They are not able to see it for what it is, but are willing to throw it all away for a sense of righteous self-flagellation that's supposed to make them morally superior to what they see as the depraved civilization that gave them almost everything they could want. I suppose it demonstrates that what people crave most is a sense of rightness....but only to this degree when they have nothing to contrast with a life of no actual problems, that left them so bereft of meaning that they had to literally invent problems of identity in order to feel something that seems genuine. Fortunately there are some kids who have come through it, at least to some degree, with their heads still on straight, and I hope for their sake that we don't have to go through the culmination of what seems to be developing around us.

[@ezioberolo2936]

This is a wonderful lecture indeed. I only wish he had pushed on beyond the concept of opposites to that of balance and continuous feedback between the opposites: this is a singularity of balance, one which keeps the planet in it's orbit between the escape velocity and that of gravitational pull. It is because of this balance that we have self-organising life, thought, consciousness and so on...

[@austinlaswell8143]

I think he all but said that… Lol

[@joefization]

I think he did explain exactly that, only he didn't say it in so few words.

[@austinlaswell8143]

@Ezio Berolo I just wanted to say, my comment was meant in respect. The “all but” was and idiomatic joke of sorts. God Bless

[@matthewstokes1608]

The only reason for any of this is God.

[@joefization]

@@matthewstokes1608 Generation-Operation-Dissolution (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric; the wholly Trinity)

[@stephenhogg6154]

So good to see Colin Wilson’s ideas eventually reaching the mainstream.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

I was thinking the same thing - that Iaian McGilchrist is kind of a scholarly version of Colin Wilson

[@stephenhogg6154]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 Yes, agreed. And, although I’m being facetious here, it’s true that McG’s book on the right brain (the compendium to ‘Emissary’) repeats all of CW’s ideas without ever acknowledging him - something I found a bit irritating.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@stephenhogg6154 I started reading his two volume, "The Matter with Things." I have his first book but I haven't read it yet, just heard his talks on it. I've read several of Colin Wilson's books. Wilson did touch on very important esoteric concepts that still are not found in academic analysis. But Wilson was grasping for a conceptual analysis whereas McGilchrist has the scholarly articulate analysis. When Colin Wilson promoted Stan Gooch who was another professor psychologist, then I would say Gooch was maybe a better comparison. I corresponded with Gooch when he was living along in his trailer caravan in Wales - via snail mail. McGilchrist emphasizes that the corpus callosum mainly is inhibitory but it's well-documented that musicians who train from a young age have a significantly larger corpus callosum. McGilchrist does note that music is right brain dominant. So the inference is that music is not based on inhibition of the corpus callosum but "facilitation" as McGilchrist states. Gooch emphasizes the cerebellum that is also key in music. Colin Wilson by emphasizing the paranormal just as with Gooch then requires a full body-mind transformation. This requires quantum biology and even relativistic quantum biology. I have articles published on this - so I agree that Wilson definitely was willing to consider more esoteric ideas. Michael Manning is an excellent example of an anomaly that should not be dismissed - as Nobel Physicist Brian Josephson pointed out, Manning was exposing a new kind of force that Western science had not yet defined. Physics PRofessor Basil J. Hiley has now documented this new "causative force" - and Roger Penrose also identifies this as noncommutative time-frequency. Alain Connes, the Fields Medal math professor uses music analysis to model nocommutativity - what McGilchrist calls the "inbetween-ness between the music notes. I would said McGilchrist is close and he could learn from studying Stan Gooch, Colin Wilson and quantum biology more - like Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Dr. Jack Tuszinski, Penrose and Stuart Hameroff. The pineal gland is underrated as is the 2nd brain of the small intestines. Our nascent abilities are more like the abilities of an electric eel or electric fish using quasi telepathy - via the ampullae of Lorenzi. haha. McGilchrist is barely cracking open the possibilities of the human mind. I finished my master's degree studying from a qigong master who is Chinese and he works with the Mayo Clinic doctors. So when McGilchrist makes reference to "oriental" culture he is not delving deep into the nonwestern potentials. I think Colin Wilson, which is "dark high" expose is still underestimating human evil - but he's closer. It is a kind of hard-wired lower frequency intention but it is also a psychic vampirism based on ejaculation addiction.

[@12th-House]

The two volumes just came in. The deeper we contemplate the opposites the more we recognize that love is the way to go.

[@cecilcharlesofficial]

Yes, though we can't choose love. We can only choose to place our attention upon the world (sensations, sights, sounds) instead of thoughts (not that thoughts are bad, they're just contrast). And with attention placed on the world or on the sensations of the body (and not on the formulated thoughts in own mind), that thing we call love starts to shine forth from us. May take a while. May only take a moment.

[@mapstoinsight3252]

This is monumentally paradigm altering-a profound, articulate & much needed reconsideration of our world, our reality & its composition! Some of the most magnificent truths derive from the cooperation of opposites. But in an attempt to understand our world, we’ve-in too many ways-oversimplified it. It’s time we step back & re-examine the reality we’ve created. There can be no meaningful relationship without some measure of resistance. And the more cooperative resistance, the more potential for relationship to deepen & grow in complexity & meaning.

[@saroth222]

Excellent lecture! Greetings from Aberdeen, Scotland.

[@gsrbaboo1]

“Pain and bliss- the duality”

[@09bamasky]

As a student of philosophy, anthropology, neuroscience, and religion, among other things, and as a psychoanalytically-trained psychotherapist, I have to say that this is one of the most fascinating lectures I’ve yet seen. Looking forward to the new book by McGilchrist!

[@michaeldavidson1909]

Great quote by the Austrian. What you see is what you be. Excellent exposistion. Thank you.

[@davidwatermeyer5421]

Would that this was heard in churches around the world! It's the sermon we all need to hear.

[@cecilcharlesofficial]

Would that more people said 'would that.' 🤓

[@davidwatermeyer5421]

@@cecilcharlesofficial Would that they would indeed!

[@shari6063]

Absolutely brilliant lecture! Thoroughly illuminating! And greetings from Canada.

[@WhiteStoneName]

Hi, Canada.

[@shari6063]

@@WhiteStoneName hellooooo!

[@vixendixon6943]

Hello Shari.

[@vixendixon6943]

@@WhiteStoneName Hello Luke.

[@WhiteStoneName]

@@vixendixon6943 well, hi there!

[@AriaIvancichArt]

Ty 4 sharing, I found this lecture mind opening!

[@Dreamaster2012]

Magnificent culmination and elucidation of the Core Challenges of our Planetary Culture. Bravo 👏

[@Liyah-encyclopedia333]

This lecture is so beautiful

[@chris432t6]

I enjoyed this immensely! Thank you both!

[@artimuddaiah9711]

Oh my gawd. Wonderful. Inspiring. Thankyou.

[@poetryinmotion8112]

Love is the key to humanity...

[@evo1ov3]

Albert Einstein Heraclitus. Excellent. I need to get into Ralston College. If this teacher is talking about the stuff I've thought about. Then I need to examine my priorities.

[@AnnieDieuLeVeut]

Absolutely excellent lecture. Thank you so much!

[@mdl222]

Best from Boston, Massachusetts

[@normhype1311]

Wonderful and inspiring lecture!

[@joefization]

An absolutely beautiful lecture

[@Wrw942]

Focus and organization does not preclude awareness or insight and are in fact precursors to the broader understanding of relationships. Additionally all things are seen more clearly in recognition of, and continued inquiry into, what our blindnesses may reveal. Thank you for your work.

[@perrywidhalm114]

Thanks for posting. Good lecture.

[@ChrisOgunlowo]

Vintage McGilchrist. Deeply beautiful and inspiring.

[@artandculture5262]

Beautiful work.

[@paulmclean876]

...really wonderful presentation...

[@carlasousa8623]

Absolutely Fantastic lecture. Thank you

[@edwardmeradith2419]

This is a wonderful lecture- excellent

[@sandramusgrove1489]

Thanks for your lecture and wisdom

[@sum2automation]

I'm reminded of the seeker Saint Francis and his findings after his life long search: "What you are looking for is what is looking". Yes, this has truly destroyed my brains understand of religion's and the spiritual life. All for the better understanding of life and living in the spirit. Nice talk, with much to ponder. Thanks for sharing your work!

[@engineeringcilia5114]

I am an Educationalist in Secondary context and have been for 20 years. In that time I have a unique subject that is an interface for many topics and crosses the boundaries that are set up by the segmented curriculum. I would like to believe that "our" epistemology has purpose, depth and value. However, for the last 12 years "we" are second if not third in what is "important" for pupils. I teach Design and Technology and I teach children to engage with their ideas and understand the concerns around being consumers and using materials. I have listened, read and re-listened, re-read and thought and then thought some more around you the ongoing work, publications and discussions of Iain McGilchrist. I have some reflections too! I will share but I might also risk exposing my opposites of my existence. I have absolutely no idea whether they mean anything, other than what I understand and "see" from my experience. I "see" LHS traits in disadvantage pupils so much so that is is alarmingly familiar that I wonder if their connections are much disconnected. I see a educational system that is hierarchal and fixated on performance and yet detached from meaning, to what it means to be a human, our connection, our ancestry. I "see" how both LHS and RHS engagement in learning has been lost within the drive to make every second count, filling up young minds like filling up a jug of water as if this will provide insight and connections to what it means to learn? I "see" an education that is about getting pupils to gain a "good" job so wealth can be obtained but not necessarily about aligning a purpose to life to our young people. An opposite set of needs being imposed. A lesson with a "gap" of nothing, would be seen as "wasted" so the value of allowing time to play, wonder and explore is opposite to valuable learning. I "see" how those that are disadvantaged are sometimes not given any value to taking part to the process of what we call value. They are the opposite of what the system can tolerate so find it hard to integrate. I am not sure whether I am a failing teacher but what I have done is to leave space for learning what is hard - to believe in ideas, to believe in who we are and to believe we are all valued even if we are opposite. What I remember from my studies at Cambridge was Phronesis as described in a paper about education related to what I was learning - that is a blend of Praxis and Theory. I found that my subject could have a place in Phronesis the blending of opposites giving rise to wisdom. I think I am not educated enough to debate this but what I want from my pupils is the wisdom to understand the value of their ideas, which might be naïve but are important to their journey of self realisation and what we make,' our artifacts, our ancestry, it is all important and has formed the basis of our developed society - Technology and Design does not the "value" as it sits in opposition to other academic demands. It use to have, but that is not a reflection on what it is, more than what "value" it does bring for a society's industrial need and to the immediate world, to what needs to be grasped. Wonderful lecture and beautifully explained by Dr Iain McGilchrist. Thank you for sharing.

[@mariakatariina8751]

39:15 Our Lady: "those who should speak against evil, stay quiet"

[@petesfohn5659]

amazing......really uniquely great speech. Thank you brother.

[@stephenmiller-wb2ul]

@7:28 Dr. Ian is talking about the Iroquois. When I was a kid in elementary school, I ran across a language map showing the relationship between the language of the Iroquois and the French. I was very intrigued and found out many years later that indeed some of the French found their way to America and intermingled with the Iroquois.

[@aldebaranredstar]

So good!! Excellent points about the necessity of our human Union with the natural world, and we must have better education and guidance for our youth.

[@dynamike201]

The contradictory principles that make up reality is so eloquently discussed here. Thank you. The realization that there are no absolute truths is hopeful for those that don't or can't see the crack in the perceived future where the light comes in .....

[@tonybaker2968]

I was greatly expanded by this lovely conversation.

[@chris432t6]

Agree. Thank you.

[@ricerikson4708]

1:03, Thank-you, very engaging, grateful for your exceptional stability of purpose and depth of attention in your presentation

[@youonlylikeonce9592]

Fascinating lecture. Is there going to be an audio version of this book?

[@dr.nivedidageorge998]

This is my sunday sermon ! ♥️

[@evdokiademetriades4975]

Brilliant ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@isabt4]

I cannot thank you enough for this immense wisdom!!! We are living at a crossroad of human existance, and it is very scary; you have given me hope with your voices. You have also helped me understand my personal conflicting beliefs about universal love and life meaning. May the universe lead us to the paths of wisdom 🙏❤️

[@ACuriousChild]

Elizabeth don't worry, it inevitably will turn out towards the outcome the universe is heading towards. It always has and it is not our task to find out where, when or how it will turn out. Just keep walking, observing and witnessing by being present at all times. Anxiety is simply a sign of lack of faith of the left hemisphere of the human brain by clinging to the "status quo" of past, present or future. Without insinuating anything, rather speaking of my own experience. Dark times are the most visible part of the universe testing its own creation all the time. Call it evolution if you want or God - not the bearded one 😉 - for lack of a better word.

[@isabt4]

@@ACuriousChild thank you for your wonderful reply, so true. I will try to stop worrying and being more present; caring and attending and doing in whichever way my capabilities allow, but letting go of worry ❤️

[@ACuriousChild]

@Elizabeth Terry Wonderful, don't thank me thank the universe, i.e. yourself for "letting go" the fear. Nothing is a "problem" even "less" stumbling or falling. Everything is in constant flow, to whichever "end" it may be. To be reminded of this wisdom is all anyone of us needs. Anything done in the "spirit" of one's right hemisphere of the human brain will do it. Although certainly the wisdom coming through Ian's voice does the "trick" too. But only if one's left hemisphere of the human brain is soothed to calm down. Just breathe! ❤️

[@evo1ov3]

Ohhhh! The analogy of the gardener. That is so Socratic. I am so remembering that one.