James Kingsland on His Recent Books as Well as on How Altered States Can Help Us Discover the Natural State

Join Andrew as he talks with noted science writer James Kingsland. James is a medical and science journalist with over twenty-five years' experience working for publications including New Scientist, Nature and the Guardian, a British daily newspaper, where he was a commissioning editor and contributor for its Notes & Theories blog. On his own blog the Plastic Brain, he writes about neuroscience and Buddhist psychology. In this interview, Andrew talks with James about his forthcoming book, “Am I Dreaming? The New Science of Consciousness and How Altered States Reboot the Brain.” When asked to endorse the book, Andrew wrote, “If you’re not shocked by this book, you don’t understand it.” This is a tour-de-force look at neurophenomenology (where science meets spirit), and a deep exploration of the nature of perception – how it is that we “dream” our world into existence. Additional topics discussed by Andrew and James include; hypnosis, virtual reality, psychedelics, hallucination, lucid dreaming, and how altered states can help us discover the natural state. Learn about the neural substrates of ego, the default mode network and the salience network, and how meditation rudely interrupts the narratives created by these networks. Find out why you sometimes have to “lose your mind to find reality.” Discover how it is truly possible that lucid dreamers are on the cutting edge of evolution. . . and so much more.