Episode 109 - Mind-Melting Theories About Consciousness and Your Soul

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Where Western medicine ends is often the place where eye-rolling begins. Just the mere mention of alternative medicine brings up imagery of snake-oil salesmen, chakras and crystals. But in the modern world, we're so devoted to the materialistic side of science–the stuff that can only be measured and doled out in pill form–we forget how much we don't know about how the human body works.

 

Don't get us wrong, Western medicine is great! We can heal bones, prescribe medications and implant devices that can make the deaf hear again. But when it comes to dealing with dementia, autism, strokes, or anything inside the brain, we might as well be in the middle ages. How can we help a child locked inside his own mind when we barely understand what the mind is? How can we ethically take a comatose person off life support when your best guess for the definition of consciousness is as good as ours?

 

Jack O'Brien is joined in-studio this week by David Huntsberger, host of the now-defunct podcast Professor Blastoff, for a very heady conversation about consciousness, the brain, the mind, and searching for therapies at the edge of Western medicine.

[wakefresh 689]

I'm so tired of people having nostalgia for these by-gone times where there was "artistic merit". Its all bullshit. The Who, The Beatles, and Led Zepplin were not struggling bands. They were the biggest pop acts of their time, and in the case of Led Zepplin, just outright musical thieves. They were not counter culture at all; they were the mainstream of the recording industry.

 

Also, this idea of musicians not being able to live off of their art is very bourgeois idea. The only people who are able to make "art" and not be paid are the idle rich and those who they choose to patron. The world has missed out on a lot of art because is generated by commission. It is actually more democratic and open to more voices, that individuals have to pay the artist themselves. This way, everybody gets the opportunity to share their art and the opportunity to sustain themselves by art alone.

[Mystech 8]

I'm sorry I had to stop listening at "he cured autism". A common criticism of this show and cracked in general is that you don't really bother citing your sources, and normally I'm there defending that, because let's face it this is a comedy show not some sort of forensic sciences show and if it's in the interest of comedy or just interesting food for thought then it's all good, but really you've just gone too far this time.

 

Please, if you're going to be making specific medical claims, especially ones about a medical condition around which there is so much misinformation and weird advice from highly motivated groups of non-medical professionals, then at least check your own sources, check with other doctors *about* those sources, and then tell us those sources. The world of alt-med is full of cranks and weirdos spewing all sorts of nutty BS, and all you've done in this week's episode is absorb that BS and spew it back out at us, and this time it wasn't even funny or to illustrate some other salient point, we're all just sitting here covered in BS and we don't even get anything for it!

[KevinCarroll 0]

I do agree that our new internet based enculturation has increased our focus on commodification especially for content creators of some type, but I totally disagree with the end result. I think it is improving the integrity of art as this allows/encourages artists to manage their own distribution, sales, and marketing. The more this happens the less relevant labels, publishers, etc become. I have nothing against these management entities, but think about how much influence they have had over the direction of mass-consumed art, and now that an artist is much more able to manage the business side themselves AND be successful, they can attempt to distribute their raw vision.

 

On the point previous (reduction of individuality) the trend of self managed expression, coupled with the increased connectivity and access to other expression has, in my opinion, also significantly increased the sense of individuality rather than reduced it. As we abstract away our physical identities and put more importance on who we are, our likes, dislikes, voice, and voices we listen to, we are emphasizing the concept of true identity rather than who our meat is. I think this is the key reason we have seen so many identity bound social issues arise. We are nearing absolute control of our identities, but have yet to develop a good API for publishing our own identity definitions, so others may not see or understand those definitions and experience a powerful sense of dissonance. This is additionally supported by your point on reduced rejection of personalized advertising and data mining, when the idea of who I am matters to me, then my time matters to me, I want to spend it fully on expressing myself or satisfying my desires, so if 30 seconds of that time is going to be spent on watching an ad, I would much prefer it be based on something I might be interested in, not something a generic fan of the show I'm watching is interested in.

 

We aren't losing our attention spans, we are becoming more elective about what deserves our attention, just as we aren't becoming mindless consumers or sell-out artists, we are taking in information/experiences that fit our individual wants, and making our self-expression become self-sustaining.

[ClaytonCatching 0]

OOh boy, this episode was painful to listen to. I love your show it is my favorite podcast, but I think you may have been a bit out of your depth. One, Autism Spectrum Disorder is not cured. However, we can teach techniques and strategies that help people on the spectrum cope. There is also no secret behind these techniques, they are mostly under the realm of applied behavior science. Applied behavioral science incorporates a great deal of data collection so it is very easy to determine what techniques are working and why. Behavior analysts are becoming a big part of the treatment of mental health problems. I work at the largest mental health facility in Canada, and we have an applied behavioral scientist on every floor. We also have many spiritual care workers that run groups with clients, we have occupational therapists who do mindfulness therapy which includes meditation. They are very much a part of the multi lens approach that is western medicine. The difference between how we do things and how alt-medicine does things, is that we try to make sure there is evidence to back our approach. If you would like to interview any of our staff to dispel the myths about how close minded western medicine is, please let me know and I will happily provide contact info.