MindMatters

Human Predators in Power: How They Hide in Plain Sight | Karen Mitchell

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 -0400

On this episode we discuss Dr. Karen Mitchell’s book Human Predators and her research on harmful people across settings such as business, law, medicine, media, religion, and politics. She argues that predators outside prison are common, often act covertly through emotional and social abuse, and share similar traits and tactics regardless of labels like narcissist or psychopath.

We also discuss her view that the DSM can blur distinctions between predators and traumatized victims, especially in categories like borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Karen describes how predators target vulnerable “prey,” use gaslighting and coercion, and can cause severe psychological harm, while also pointing to behavioral red flags and the need for better awareness and screening in leadership roles.

Karen's recommended shows:

Wild republic (German miniseries)
Fifteen-Love (British miniseries)
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish
Wild, Wild Country
Escaping Utopia
Fake (Australian miniseries)
The Tinder Swindler
Dr Death
The Family

Karen's book is now available here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1923630423/

Website: https://www.kalmor.com.au/
Twitter: https://x.com/karenmitchell__
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkarenmitchell_/

MindMatters on odysee: https://odysee.com/@MindMatters:4

Nigel Kerner’s CHILLING Warning: AI Is Making Us Less Human, with Danielle Silverman

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0400

In this episode of Mind Matters, Harrison engages with Danielle Silverman, a collaborator of the late Nigel Kerner, author of Gray Aliens and Artificial Intelligence. They discuss Kerner’s philosophical and metaphysical perspectives on UFOs, suggesting gray aliens are synthetic, non-sentient beings seeking to harvest human souls—a unique connection to a perfect, eternal state. Kerner’s work, rooted in decades of inquiry sparked by his son’s question about UFOs, posits that humanity is at risk of losing its capacity for meaning by merging with AI and technology, aligning with an alien agenda. Silverman emphasizes the importance of resisting this trajectory through human connection and awareness to preserve our sovereignty and spiritual essence.

Artificial Stone: Has Marcell Foti Cracked the Megalithic Code?

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0400

In this episode of Mind Matters, Marcell Foti shares his groundbreaking Natron Theory, challenging conventional explanations for the construction of ancient megalithic structures. Foti, an IT professional turned independent researcher, proposes that ancient civilizations used a chemical process involving natron—a carbonate mineral used in ancient Egypt for mummification and as a detergent—to etch and dissolve granite into a moldable "waterglass" slurry, which could then be cast into precise stone shapes. Demonstrating with small-scale experiments, he explains how this method accounts for the seamless, complex features of structures like those in Peru and Egypt, offering a compelling alternative to traditional theories of chiseling. Follow Marcel’s ongoing experiments and insights on Twitter and check out his book, The Natron Theory, for a deeper dive into this revolutionary idea.

The Dark Side of Non-Human Intelligence with Matt Hurley

Sat, 24 May 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Matt Hurley is the creator of badaliens.info, a website dedicated to exploring the darker aspects of the UFO phenomenon. In this episode of MindMatters, Hurley shares his journey into UFO research, sparked by reading Above Top Secret as a teenager, and his subsequent disillusionment with contradictory and overly optimistic narratives in ufology. With a focus on physical evidence over speculative theories, Hurley discusses disturbing topics like abductions, animal and human mutilations, and missing persons cases, emphasizing the need for transparency and caution regarding non-human intelligences.

Matt's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1fPZhLXXqvVvqhiEn81oiA

Matt on Twitter: https://x.com/Badaliensinfo

Three-Body Problem: Soft Disclosure? John Carter talks ETs and UFOs

Mon, 12 May 2025 21:00:00 -0400

Today MindMatters welcomes back John Carter to talk Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem, science fiction in general, and to compare NHI theories. Do UAP represent extraterrestrials putting on a show to appear more advanced than actually are? Or super-advanced ultraterrestrials who may have their own weaknesses? What is the possible connection between tech and psi? And would humanity actually unite in the case of an ET threat, as Ronald Reagan so endearingly believed?

Cutchinology: A Decade of the Paranormal with Joshua Cutchin

Fri, 02 May 2025 15:00:00 -0400

Joshua Cutchin is one of the most interesting thinkers on the paranormal alive. He is the author of 8 classic books on the subject, including highly focused investigations into the role of food in paranormal encounters, paranormal odors, and child abduction in folklore and contemporary culture. He has also produced wide-ranging analyses on Bigfoot, widening the conceptual aperture to include paranormal features ignored by many until now, and the relation of death to all things paranormal. His latest book deals with the overlap between fiction and the paranormal, and the flimsy boundary between fiction and reality. Joshua is also an accomplished musician and a cool dad.

Predators in High Places with Dr. Karen Mitchell

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters, Dr. Karen Mitchell, founder and CEO of the Kalmor Institute, shares insights from her pioneering PhD research on the "persistent predatory personality." Unlike previous studies that relied primarily on incarcerated populations or graduate students, Dr. Mitchell's work draws from the extensive experiences of practitioners who have dedicated their careers to working with individuals exhibiting dark triad traits and psychopathic tendencies.

Her research includes data from professionals with an average of 22 years' experience in fields such as child sex abuse, domestic violence, cults, terrorism, toxic leadership, including an FBI agent with the highest number of serial killer cases. By canvassing these unique perspectives, her work offers a fresh approach to understanding and identifying the persistent predatory personality, highlighting the limitations of existing models like the Psychopathy Checklist developed by Robert Hare.

The Varieties of Inner Experience with Russ Hurlburt

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0400

Inner speaking, inner seeing, feelings, sensory awareness, unsymbolized thinking. Do we all have the same inner experiences? And how aware are we of what we actually experience from moment to moment?

In this episode of Mind Matters, we interview Dr. Russell T. Hurlburt, a pioneering psychologist from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Hurlburt discusses his groundbreaking work investigating "pristine inner experience" - the unfiltered, moment-to-moment contents of our consciousness. He introduces his innovative method, Descriptive Experience Sampling, which aims to capture and analyze inner experiences with the aid of specialized beeper and an in-depth interview process.

This episode provides a unique perspective on the study of human consciousness and the complexities of inner experience. Dr. Hurlburt's insights shed light on the importance of understanding our internal mental processes and how they relate to our self-representations. Whether you're a psychology enthusiast, a student of cognitive science, or simply curious about the workings of the human mind, this interview provides valuable insights into cutting-edge research on consciousness and experience.

Russ's DES interview videos and transcripts: https://hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu/lena/do_I_have_internal_monologue_sampling.html
Russ's book: https://www.amazon.com/Investigating-Pristine-Inner-Experience-Moments/dp/1107009944
Our previous discussion on Russ's work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP4XFq2fPM8

Do NPCs Have an Inner Monologue? Discussing the 5 Pristine Inner Experiences

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 13:00:00 -0400

Self-talk. Visualizations. Bodily awareness. Unconscious thought processes. In our day-to-day course of existence our minds assimilate, respond and react to any number of stimuli from within – and without. But how often do we stop to consider just how we do this and what faculties of apprehension are actually put to use? And do we even have a framework, vocabulary and level of awareness from which to do it?

Inner speech (inner monologue), inner vision, sensory awareness, emotions and unsymbolized thinking are all categories that, according to psychologist and researcher Russell T. Hurlburt, can help one come to know what one’s "pristine inner experience" is. Along with such a framework and the research inspired by it come many questions. What does it mean to be “in the moment”? Do all people use all categories of inner experience with the same frequency? How are we used to describing our inner experiences to ourselves and to others? Were personages like Gurdjieff on to something when he encouraged people to observe themselves?

Join us this week on MindMatters as we question the many assumptions, presuppositions, and mediations that come between cognizance of individual inner experience, and a relative state of unawareness regarding just what makes us tick.

Transforming Darkness: Shadow Work and Pathocracy with Colin Davis

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:00:00 -0400

So you’ve been ‘red pilled’. You're well versed in false flags, deep states, secret governments, and state-sponsored assassinations. You’ve watched documentaries about stolen elections, the New World Order, child trafficking, and mind control. And then when you were through with those, you read extensively on the criminal acts of intelligence agencies, psychopathy among the elite, exotic weapons, and more.

And now you simply know, in your bones, that the reality presented to you on CNN (and most other places) is total B.S. - and have the hours and days of sleepless nights, shocked reactions and chills running down your spine to prove it. But, perhaps, no one ever told you how to assimilate such life-changing information. And, perhaps, no one ever guided your expanded insight of how the world really works - with an equally expanded insight into how you really work. (Or, if you have experienced it, you can stand to have a few reminders!)

This week on MindMatters we are joined by writer and researcher Colin E. Davis whose new book, Transforming Darkness: A Shadow Work Toolkit for the Red Pilled Initiate addresses just such issues. Using Jung’s idea of the Shadow, or the dark side that exists in all of us, Davis not only provides a survey of works describing how this darkness comes to be and is manifested in the world, but also provides references to some of the best modalities that aid in addressing them. Understanding the world we truly live in is a most worthy pursuit, but the balance required to see ourselves as we truly are, and as we live a 'Red Pilled’ life, is no less crucial.

Arthur Versluis: The Neo-Gnostics vs. Pathocracy

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 15:00:00 -0400

Neo-gnosticism without gnosis. Gnosis without neo-gnosticism. These are just a couple of the frameworks, dichotomies, and strains of gnosticism making their way into the religious, social, and political consciousness and conversation of today’s world through literature, film, and other media. In this follow-up discussion with author and scholar Arthur Versluis, we continue our discussion on his Oxford University Press-published book 'American Gnosis: Political Religion And Transcendence.' We further delve into the profound influence and divergences of an ancient set of spiritual beliefs - made all the more relevant for their lasting power and pervasiveness in so much of what we’re observing on the world stage. (Part I of this discussion is here.)

This week on MindMatters we further examine the spectrum of gnosis, contemporary misconceptions about its tenets, as well as how the political dissidents of today could become the inquisitional forces of tomorrow. If pathocracy, extreme materialism, radical leftism and communism are the ‘enemies’ of gnosticism, then what, if anything, can gnosticism tell us about a way forward in an increasingly complicated world?

It's Full of Life: The Philosophy of ET with Andrew Davis

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:00:00 -0500

Astrophilosophy. Exotheology. Whitehead.

Andrew Davis is the program director for the Center for Process Studies. A philosopher and theologian, his latest work is on the metaphysics of exo-life. Today on MindMatters we discuss his work on science, religion, and what the impact of the discovery of ET life would mean for philosophy, and a general philosophical framework that would make sense of it.

We also discuss the opening up of public and academic interest in the topic of UFOs and non-human intelligences, David Ray Griffin's work and parapsychology, humans as an exemplification of what the universe does, the morphological and ontological templates that life may take elsewhere, the ontology of possibilities, shared commonalities that might allow for communication with ET forms of life, the mind of God, and more.

The Woke Psychopathology Taxonomy with David Abramowitz

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 18:00:00 -0500

David Abramowitz joins us once again, this time to discuss Michael Shellenberger and Peter Boghossian's Taxonomy of Woke Psychopathology. With Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology as inspiration, the taxonomy summarizes how certain Woke topics and causes express Cluster B personality disorder dynamics. While the topics themselves may not be pathological, the manner in which they're presented is, expressing such features as attention-seeking, grandiosity, emotional dysregulation, excess and lack of empathy, victimhood ideology, impaired reality testing, and splitting.

Join us as we take a broader look at political causes, the pathocratic function of ideology, and its role in creating a worldview that makes sense to the Cluster B personality. Pathocratic personalities then attempt to force everyone else to conform to the world they have created.

Dark Matter Monsters and the Sociology of the Paranormal with Dr. Simeon Hein

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:00:00 -0500

Let's face it. Bigfoot is real. The only question is, what is it? With now thousands of credible encounters that would be difficult to ignore or dismiss, we know many individuals have also observed a host of seemingly paranormal phenomena that quite often accompany these large strange creatures. Orbs, ball lightening, strange smells, space-time anomalies, electromagnetic fluctuations; not to mention witnessing these cryptids moving at super-fast speeds, and morphing into different forms; making our conceptions of what Bigfoot are very likely obsolete.

But what if some of the experiences of these beings, and others like them, has something to do with our tentative understanding of cutting edge science? What if what many have seen has much in common with the way that "coherent matter" works? Are there correlations between cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction, technology and access to other realms of reality? And what have a number of leading scientists in physics been known to say about the fluid nature of reality?

This week on MindMatters we are pleased to speak with Dr. Simeon Hein whose recent book, Dark Matter Monsters: Cryptids, Ball Lightning, and the Science of Secret Lifeforms, is a serious exploration of just such questions.

From Archons to the Matrix: Understanding American Gnosis with Arthur Versluis

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 16:00:00 -0500

The ancient idea of spiritual gnosis has evolved and branched to reflect the time and place in which we live. Nowhere is this development more evident than in the writings and scholarship of author Arthur Versluis . In his groundbreaking new book American Gnosis: Political Religion and Transcendence, Versluis takes an in-depth look at the varieties of modern 'neo-gnosticism.' These include cosmological gnosticism - the worldly effort to escape from archons of darkness or hostile beings that would seek to subjugate the world through politics and other power structures. Another is metaphysical gnosis, or transcendence that is less a reaction to the perception of evil overlords than movement towards divine knowledge for its own sake.

Join us this week on MindMatters as we delve into the realm of cosmological gnosis with Arthur Versluis, and look at the plethora of ways in which some really old ideas have been reinvigorated (alongside some newer ones). How do these ideas present themselves in literature, TV and movies? Is there is a crossover between ‘political awakening’ and ‘spiritual awakening’? And what, if anything, may this have to do with some developments we’ve been seeing with the so-called ‘dissident right’ in the US?

Psychedelics, Sobriety, and Altered States: Processing Reality with John Buchanan

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 13:00:00 -0500

What do altered states tell us about the nature of consciousness? And what can philosophy tell us about altered states? John Buchanan has spent his life trying to find the answers. His book, Processing Reality: Finding Meaning in Death, Psychedelics, and Sobriety, details the story of his history of experimentation and addiction, his path to sobriety, and the insights he has gained into the nature of human experience and consciousness.

A synthesis of Whitehead's process philosophy and Grof's transpersonal psychology, Buchanan's ideas provide a framework for understanding not only the nature of the psychedelic experience and other altered states, but also the nature of consciousness itself and the structure of the cosmos.

Five MYTHS about Evil: Setting the Record Straight with David Abramowitz

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Are all psychopaths serial killers? Is authoritarianism only found on the political right? Are we all equally capable of evil? Does power really corrupt absolutely? And is evil really "banal"?

Join us today as we discuss the biggest myths about evil with David Abramowitz, the nature of psychopaths and ponerology, and how McGilchrist’s brain-hemisphere research fits into the picture.

David Abramowitz has a background in finance and accounting, but an experience with a psychopath set him on a path to research the topic for the next decade. He has read nearly everything there is to read on the subject, and describes a type which he has termed the “passive-parasitic” psychopath. These are the so-called successful psychopaths, the ones you’ll find on Wall Street and in Washington. And they’re the reason for much of today’s pathological political climate.

Gurdjieff and the Inner Evolution of Man - with Alan Francis

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:00:00 -0400

Do human beings have ‘higher bodies’? Is there an essence or essential part of one’s being that individuals can consciously help to grow? And what does the development of the personality have to do with these possibilities? Philosopher and teacher G.I. Gurdjieff presented the world with an esoteric framework for self-development that has been carried forward by a number of thinkers.

What does esoteric growth look and feel like? What are some of the processes involved? And how does one go about verifying that such a process is even occurring? Does an inner questioning end when one reaches a higher state, or does it just go deeper? Joining us for his third appearance on MindMatters is author/teacher Alan Francis. Alan's decades of experience with Gurdjieff’s work have helped him crystalize some insights as to how we may become more than what we are. He is the head of the International School of the Fourth Way, and the author of 'Secrets of the Fourth Way.'

Cold-blooded Kindness: The Longhouse Mentality and Psychopathology - with Dr. J.D. Haltigan

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:00:00 -0400

J.D. Haltigan is a developmental and evolutionary psychologist who writes the Multilevel Mailer on Substack. His research and writing focuses on psychopathology, social media-induced mental illness in the young, and the psychological phenomena underlying Woke ideology and the culture wars. Lately he has been writing about the negative effects of traits like compassion and empathy when not balanced and held in check by trait systematization. J.D. has also writing a review of Andrew Lobaczewski’s Political Ponerology tying its insight to our current sociopolitical situation.

Unmasking Psychopaths and Narcissists in Business and Politics - with Dr. Clive Boddy

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 14:00:00 -0400

Clive Boddy is Associate Professor of Management at Anglia Ruskin University, a leading researcher in the field of corporate psychopathy, and author of the book ‘A Climate Of Fear: Stone Cold Psychopaths At Work’. Today on MindMatters, we interview Clive about his research, why psychopaths do not make good leaders (despite claims to the contrary), how they contribute to employee job satisfaction, and how toxic leadership intersects with incompetent leadership. Once a taboo subject, corporate psychopathy has gained widespread acknowledgment in the last decade or so. But another related subject is only now breaking through academia and public consciousness: political psychopathy. Clive discusses his own work in that field as well, with comments on screening politicians for psychopathy. We even talk about Star Wars.

The Unbroken Individual Is the True Source of Moral Responsibility

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:00:00 -0400

This week on MindMatters we take a third and final look at the prescient and resounding thoughts of Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage and reflect on what it means - in the philosophical and practical sense - to be a forest walker, or forest rebel.

How one resists and chooses to respond to totalitarianism is at least as crucial as making the choice itself. But what are some of the many considerations involved? What inner resources does one draw upon and where might one find the light that helps to make the best of all choices? What does one fall back on when many of the institutions that are meant to morally support a society have been effectively gutted, or done away with completely? What is the responsibility of an unbroken and ‘concrete individual’ to step in and rectify institutional failure to some degree? And where does the power of the spoken or written word fit into this complex equation?

The Road Best Traveled: Ernst Jünger's Forest Passage

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 13:00:00 -0400

What is freedom? Where may it be found and accessed? How does it become actualized from within the individual? And if we are to become free - then what are we to be free from? In this second discussion of Ernst Jünger's seminal book The Forest Passage we follow along with the author’s many thoughts on what it means to be free. Concerning political bodies, the media, institutionalized medicine, and organized religion - what, if any, is the most fruitful approach to take in response to their diktats or guidelines? Where does free will, in the truest sense of the term, fit in to our responses? And if we are to face our fears and find a way to resist the tide of totalitarianism how should one approach the possible suffering that will likely be involved?

With the heart of a poet, and the mind of a realist, Ernst Jünger has given us much to ponder as we reflect on what he means by becoming a ‘forest rebel’. Join us this week on MindMatters as we delve further into his world view, and a road from which we may find a path to the future.

Women Who Love Psychopaths - A Retrospective and Introspective with Sandra Brown

Mon, 22 May 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Psychotherapist, educator, researcher, and author of the books Women Who Live Psychopaths, How to Spot a Dangerous Man, and many others, Sandra L. Brown’s insights have helped many face - and heal from - the damage inflicted by psychopaths and the personality disordered. Expanding on her work as a therapist and author, Sandra Brown has developed the training for thousands of therapists who now understand, and are better able to treat, cognitive dissonance, PTSD, and the neurocognitive damage to executive brain function that many victims suffer.

Join us this week on MindMatters as we look back at Sandra Brown’s influential writings, what she’s been working on since the release of her books, and how her views and perspectives since then might affect what she’d focus on if she were writing these books today - more than 18 years later.

Safe Relationships Magazine: https://saferelationshipsmagazine.com/
Association for NPD/Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research & Education: https://survivortreatment.com/

Freedom in Tyranny: Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage

Mon, 15 May 2023 15:00:00 -0400

'1984', 'Brave New World', 'Fahrenheit 451', 'The Gulag Archipelago' - there are many great books on 20th-century totalitarianism. But few of them have the power and poetry of Ernst Jünger's 1951 'The Forest Passage'. Both a man of his time - and ahead of his time - the German-born Jünger was not only a staunch but careful critic of tyranny; he could see through the “soft power” manipulations of much subtler forms of centralized oppression as well. And call it out for exactly what it was.

Given Jünger's broad vision and deep insight, one could be forgiven for thinking that the 'The Forest Passage' was written only yesterday. It is packed with perennial truths that apply to the politics and psychology of Western civilization over the last 100 or so years. Join us this week on MindMatters as we give Ernst Jünger's gem of a book its due, and begin to explore what it means to be, or become, a ‘Forest Rebel’.

"It Was Always Illegal": Grant Smith on Army Mandates, Resisting the Machine & Exercise for Health

Sat, 06 May 2023 16:00:00 -0400

Grant Smith is a US Army Physical Therapist and author of the "H2F Man" and "Radical American Mind" blogs. He also co-hosts the 5th Gen Leadership and Tonic Seven podcasts. Today we discuss his experiences during plague times - the hypocrisy and delusion he saw in the armed services' policies and actions, and how he successfully resisted the pressures and managed to keep his job - why he joined the Army in the first place, and how he found a place within it that aligned with his values and goals. In the last segment we get into the research and methods of fitness and exercise and Grant shares some central principles to follow in order to optimally train your tissues, whatever your current health status.

Knee-deep in the Weird: Science, the Paranormal, and Popular Belief

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:00:00 -0400

After some brief comments on classical worldviews, natural law, populism, the genesis of leftist and postmodern thought, and the history of ideas, we settle on today's topic of topics: the paranormal. What societal structures exist (in academia, the media, the marketplace, etc.) that make the paranormal both in demand as a subject worth learning about - and yet deeply suppressed as something to take seriously in “official culture”. What does the Church and orthodox materialist science have to say about the acceptance of the so-called supernatural? And how do we come to know anything even remotely objective about such a topic when the rigor and open-mindedness required to study it is so lacking in officialdom? Join us for this fascinating discussion!

Dr. Jadcyk's article on Crookes: https://ark-jadczyk.blogspot.com/2023/04/no-true-science-allowed-priori.html
Part 2: https://ark-jadczyk.blogspot.com/2023/04/william-crookes-and-paranormal-true.html
The Myth of Disenchantment: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Disenchantment-Magic-Modernity-Sciences/dp/022640336X

ChatGPT and the Heralds of AI’s Subjugation of Humanity - with Joe Allen

Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:00:00 -0400

In just a short time, programs like ChatGPT and other chat bots have burst on the societal scene to the delight, fascination and enthrallment of millions. Individuals can now interact with a language program that is seemingly conversant on numerous subjects and provides “answers” via virtual brains. But this new powerful technology begs many more questions: What are these programs really, and how do they fit in with the development of AI? Where does anthropomorphic projection fit in as people become increasingly involved with them? Are these bots a first major step towards a transhuman reality? And can these technologies actually be forming the basis or entryway to a new type of technoreligion?

This week on Mindmatters we get to discuss these issues with Joe Allen, author of the Substack blog Singularity Weekly. After extensive research into this and related subject matter, Joe’s nuanced analysis tells us that yes, we need to be paying serious attention to where all this has brought us, and where things are very likely going. Given how powerful and even seductive the use of these technologies are, he also suggests what may be the healthiest attitude or approach to interacting with them going forward. As if the world hasn’t devolved into enough insanity there is, in fact, a new pathologizing influence to contend with. And we, ‘legacy humans’, ignore its profound influences at our own peril.

The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty with Michael Rectenwald

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -0500

ESG’s, diversity, equity, and inclusion, stakeholder capitalism, sustainability, CBDC’s, transhumanism, Agenda 2030—no doubt you’ve heard or read about these and any number of other terms that are meant to get the public with the new progressive and “forward thinking” policies and philosophies of the future. Of course you have; they are all part of the behemoth global elite-inspired policies and agendas of the so-called “Great Reset.” But what’s really behind them? What are they actually meant to accomplish? And how might these ideas, put into actual practice, affect the way that we live—or don’t live?

Joining MindMatters once again is accomplished writer and researcher Michael Rectenwald. Author of Springtime for Snowflakes, Beyond Woke and The Google Archipelago—and in a most insightful progression—Michael tackles his biggest and most important subject yet with his new book The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty. With a depth and breadth that is unmatched, his new book delves into one of the most profoundly totalitarian and far-reaching new (and not so new) political, social, and economic agendas in contemporary history. Join us as we get our heads around what already promises to be the most monstrous and destructive developments of the 21st century, the Great Reset, and discuss what we can actually do in response.

Industrialized Rome and Wrong 'un Politicians - with Helen Dale

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 13:00:00 -0500

Helen Dale, lawyer and award-winning author of 3 novels, including The Hand that Signed the Paper, writes at Law & Liberty and Not On Your Team, But Always Fair. Her two-novel series Kingdom of the Wicked is an alternative history of Roman-occupied Judea in the first century and the arrest and trial of Yeshua ben Joseph, an enigmatic man with a large following, including some radical religious zealots. If you like literary and genre fiction—and Roman history—you won't be able to put these ones down. They’ve got soldiers, lawyers, terrorists, and biomechs; action, romance, legal proceedings, and great characters.

Today on MindMatters we talk about the books and how Helen came to write them, blending Roman morality with modern technology, and the interesting directions that might have gone. Other topics: political systems and their compatibility with different nations and cultures, Lorenzo Warby’s articles on Helen’s Substack, a policy approach to countering Woke ideology, Cluster B’s and ponerology in modern and historical politics, what Hannah Arendt got wrong about totalitarianism, and how lobbyists are the absolute worst.

Does Free Will Exist? Yes, Obviously - and Other Answers to Big Questions

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 14:00:00 -0500

Today on MindMatters, we dive into Chris Langan's essay collection, "The Art of Knowing." In the process we discuss free will, Libet's experiments and their interpretations, reality theory, morality (relative? absolute? both?), why we need bad situations in order to grow, and Batman (the greatest superhero).

The Big Questions, Consciousness, and Gurdjieff - A Talk with Alan Francis

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 15:00:00 -0500

What is the purpose of esotericism? How might we view humanity’s trajectory in light of the many seemingly negative developments we see on a more or less daily basis? What are the personal challenges in raising consciousness and awareness in oneself - and how may those be seen against the backdrop of a world gone backwards? And what does it even mean to be living in these times in the larger and even cosmic sense?

This week as we are once again joined by Gurdjiffian student and teacher Alan Francis (International School of the Fourth Way) who discusses these themes in both broad and personal terms, bringing his astute observations to the fore to answer the questions many of us have right now about where we may be, collectively and individually.

Gurdjieff, Death, and Help for the Dead with Joseph Azize

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:00:00 -0500

According to the vast "afterlife" literature, those who have passed on sometimes send signs, or even communicate through dreams or visions. But what if the support that many living claim to experience from their loved ones isn't unidirectional? Can one, in fact, help those who have passed to come to greater peace and understanding at their soul’s new station in ‘life’? For those of us familiar with the ideas, exercises and philosophy of G.I. Gurdjieff, it may come as some surprise, and perhaps delight, to learn that Gurdjieff sought to address such a question - how to give “help for the deceased” - particularly for those who were once close to us.

This week on MindMatters we are once again joined by inimitable Gurdjieffian scholar and Maronite Priest Joseph Azize whose paper “Gurdjieff’s Help for the Deceased” delves into this subject. Join us as Joseph shares his research, insights and personal experience with some very little known exercises of Gurdjieff’s - and explains not only the means from which one could honor and assist our loved ones (should they require it), ‘essence to essence’ as it were - but also to help grow and develop one’s own self and Being.

Joseph's book: Gurdjieff
Joseph's blog: Under the Sun

Esoteric Christianity: A Glimpse into Theosophia

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 13:00:00 -0500

One of western Christianity's best-kept secrets is its esoteric, mystical tradition. Starting with Jacob Boehme in the early 1600s, the theosophic branch is one of the most fascinating yet least well-known among the world's mystical traditions. Today on MindMatters we take inspiration from Arthur Versluis's two books, Theosophia and Wisdom's Children to make a first foray into the rich language and practice of the Christian theosophers.

Truth-Killing Cancel Culture Has Always Existed to Bolster the Status Quo

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 13:00:00 -0400

The cancel culture phenomenon has reared its rancorous and destructive head to such a degree that many holding non-mainstream points of view are made to think twice about sharing them in public. For cancel culture doesn’t merely seek to respond to the differing perspectives with counterarguments in honest debate. It seeks to stifle the message completely and even, in the worst cases, annihilate the speaker himself.

While we’re aware of how this pathological and ideological weaponization of rhetoric exists in contemporary times, the tools or modus operandi of cancel culture have actually been around for a good long time - especially when someone’s particular message challenges conventional wisdom - or, in more meaningful cases, questions the higher truths of the reality in which we’re immersed.

Join us this week on MindMatters as we discuss the drives some people have to become cancel culturists, what forces may be behind it, and the rhetorical patterns that always seem to be on the misguided side of an argument.

Harrison's article: https://ponerology.substack.com/p/cancel-culture-17th-century-style
Luc's substack: https://luctalks.substack.com/

Trans-ing Reality: From Transhuman Flesh to Transcendent Spirit

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 14:00:00 -0400

Materiality. Spirituality. Pathology. Normal healthy behavior. All came to the fore recently in the story about the Canadian trans teacher who came to his class wearing gigantic prosthetic breasts complete with shirt-popping plastic nipples. What does this behavior say about him that he would chose to express himself in such a way? And what does his inner makeup have in common with the other ‘trans’ currently making societal waves these days - transhumanism?

Join us this week as we take a look at the trans trends that seem so at odds with higher values, the inclinations of which seem to serve our very worst potentialities as individuals. And moving on from the transhuman delusion, we contrast the flesh to the spirit, with one of Luc's latest writings as inspiration.

The Memes Will Set You Free: Apocalyptic Conversation and American Gnosis with Arthur Versluis

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Arthur Versluis is back to discuss his recent book 'Conversations in Apocalyptic Times' (a dialogue with Robert Faas), and his forthcoming 'American Gnosis.' Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion on our current spiritual malaise, the hidden theosophic tradition within Western Christianity, continuity of consciousness, the mystery of mysteries - the Holy Grail, and Arthur's new and upcoming courses with the Hieros Institute. Keep listening: Arthur also recommends a handful of mind-blowing books you may never have heard of.

MindMatters on odysee: https://odysee.com/@MindMatters:4

What Is a Woman? Three Dudes Attempt the Impossible

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we delve into the mystery of mysteries, the unanswerable and inscrutable, the question of the ages: what is a woman? Many have tried, all have failed - until now.

With reference to Matt Walsh's documentary of the same name, an obscure work by Hervey Cleckley, and two of Luc's recent Substack articles, we provide a take you probably haven't heard anywhere else. So tune in.

Luc's first article: https://luctalks.substack.com/p/what-is-a-woman
Luc's second article: https://luctalks.substack.com/p/does-gender-exist
Harrison's substack: https://ponerology.substack.com/p/in-the-margins-sex-and-psychopathy
MindMatters on odysee: https://odysee.com/@MindMatters:4

Kicking the Cluster B-hive with Joshua Slocum: Queen B's, Homosexuality & Dealing with Narcissists

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 15:00:00 -0400

Joshua Slocum is back! Not only is his Disaffected show bigger and better than ever, Josh has recently launched a new consulting service for all those poor, unfortunate souls dealing with high-conflict people in their lives. And he's back to tell us all about it.

Today on MindMatters we ask the big questions: What do you do if someone close to you has a serious personality disorder? What are the possible links between borderline personality and homosexuality? And perhaps the biggest question of all: why do gay men like Madonna and Disney villainesses? So join us as explore these controversial topics and more, in style.

Disaffected on Rumble
Josh's Substack

John Carter of Substack: Conspiracy, Clown World, and the New Dissidence

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 14:00:00 -0400

Culture wars, political convulsions, social upheavals - you name it. If you're like us, we're always on the lookout for new voices giving their take on these strange times and just what the heck it is we're watching unfold in the West. There are a good many bloggers, pundits and observers out there, but...there can be only one. Enter John Carter (nom de plume), who writes "Postcards From Barsoom." A veteran of the academic world and all its woke garbage, John found himself transported to the fantastical realm called Substack, where he became a warrior battling various mythological beasts, alien armies and malevolent foes, armed solely with his mighty keyboard and nimble mind.

In just a short time, John has shown himself to be a voice worth listening to. And speak with aplomb he does. His writings are insightful, challenging, creative, and playfully hilarious. And in our conversation today, nothing is off the table: science, psychology, spirituality, philosophy, politics, sci-fi - whatever ideas have the explanatory power to help describe and understand the world we’re facing. At a time when we’re being barraged by the weapons of ‘cognitive conquest’ nothing is important than communicating the ideas that could provide a good sword and shield, and a means with which to face the future.

Links

Plato and Kim Jong-Un Walk Into a Bar: Talking Timeaus and the Bible with Russell Gmirkin

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Russell Gmirkin is back to talk about his blockbuster latest book: Plato’s Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts: Cosmic Monotheism and Terrestrial Polytheism in the Primordial History. Join us as we discuss the book's mind-bending conclusions: Plato's Timaeus and Critias were sources for much of the biblical primordial history, from the creation of the cosmos and mortal creatures, to Eden, the Flood and the Nephilim. Genesis reflects Plato's cosmic monotheism and terrestrial polytheism, which devolved into Exodus-Judges' monolatry. Plato was also perhaps the first totalitarian political theorist. And his legacy lives on today.

The War Paradox: How Warfare Breeds Cooperation, and Cooperation Reduces Warfare

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 14:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we discuss complexity scientist Peter Turchin's 2015 book, Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth. Turchin walks us through 10 millennia of human cultural evolution: from tribes and chiefdoms to the first states and empires, to our modern "ultrasocial" states. Contrary to pet theories and many ingenious hypotheses over the generations, the development of large, complex societies was not the result of agriculture or even ideas--the primer driver has been warfare: the technologies humans have developed to defend and conquer, the cooperation needed for both, and the cultural practices and values that developed and survived as a result.

Critical Race Theory's Race To The Bottom

Sat, 21 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Critical Race Theory did not come ready-made out of a box. What we see and know today as CRT has, as its basis, several schools of pseudo-philosophical thought and areas of academic study - one built and twisted on another. But these influences and the progression of these ideas can, for all their wrongheadedness, be traced and seen for what they are. Today on MindMatters we delve further into the ideological roots, conceptual frameworks, contemporary movements and ultimate end game of CRT as described in James Lindsay's new book Race Marxism: The Truth about Critical Race Theory and Praxis.

Other sources:
Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology
Arthur Versluis's New Inquisitions

Is Critical Race Theory Race Marxism?

Sat, 14 May 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we delve into the first chapters of James Lindsay's new book Race Marxism: The Truth about Critical Race Theory and Praxis. Contrary to what you hear on the news or Twitter, CRT is not simply a legal theory taught in law school. It is a full-blown activist movement. Even some who consider themselves proponents might be shocked to learn what its central tenets are, as described in the movements foundational academic texts. Lindsay puts it all together for us in one comprehensive volume.

The Matter with Things: Truth, Science, and Life

Sat, 07 May 2022 16:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we discuss three chapters from Iain McGilchrist's magnum opus, The Matter with Things. What is truth? What is science's role in discovering it? And what does a proper science of life look like? Join us as we plumb the depths of McGilchrist's bold vision on some of life's biggest questions.

Political Psychopathy Goes Mainstream, Linked to Crimes Against Humanity

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:00:00 -0400

Not since Nuremberg have political leaders and functionaries accused or guilty of crimes against humanity been accessible to psychologists for close study, specifically with regard to the presence of personality disorders like psychopathy. A new paper by Robert Hare and colleagues is the first of its kind to examine men convicted of crimes against humanity and test for psychopathy using the PCL-R, specifically, members of Pinochet's armed forces convicted of crimes like torture and murder. Today on MindMatters, Harrison reads portions of the paper and discusses its main conclusions and implications.

Sources:

Why Is Russia Like That? 400 Year of Russian Security Culture, with Gordon M. Hahn

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 16:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we are joined by Gordon M. Hahn, Russia analyst and author of essential books on Russia's revolution from above in the 90s, Russian jihadism, the history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and his latest: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin. While many have observed the ebb and flow of Russian relations with the West - from periods of Westernization and openness, to anti-Western revivals of Russian traditionalism - Hahn's is the first systematic analysis of Russia's security culture and vigilance norm in the context of relations with the West.

The West is an integral part of Russian identity, yet it has also been the source of invasion and political interference on and off for over 400 years. These threats have formed the Russian security vigilance norm: vigilance against possible military threats, fear of internal division and instability, and strong responses against foreign collusion with internal dissidents. To understand modern Russia, you have to understand its history - not just the pathological aberration of the Communist era.

"They Enjoy the Infliction of Pain": Psychopaths, Wokeness, Ponerology - with Michael Rectenwald

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:00:00 -0400

Many see through the destructive thoughts, emotions and policies of Leftist political dogma - thanks in large part to the actions and behaviors of their acolytes in academia, the media and other institutions. But few have as direct experience of it - and the wit and guts to call it out for what it is and share that understanding of it with stark clarity and aplomb - as today's guest. After being “softly” ejected from his position at New York University for his critical tweets of the deleterious SJW culture he was witnessing, Prof. Michael Rectenwald steeled himself to examine even further the phenomenon he was witnessing and became a victim of.

With his books Springtime For Snowflakes and Google Archipelago, and his prolific output of essays and articles, Michael not only documents his own personal journey through various intellectual currents and his own higher values, but also examines how these themes overlap with Big Digital and macro developments such as the now infamous and imminent Great Reset. This week on MindMatters we get to discuss some of the most important issues facing Western society and culture today with one of the strongest advocates for personal and political sanity to grace the stage.

An added bonus, we celebrate the release of the new edition of Dr. Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology, edited by MindMatters' Harrison Koehli, with a foreword by Prof. Rectenwald, in which he describes how ponerology helped explain his own experience of Leftist totalitarianism, and why the book's explanatory power is so compelling and crucial for better understanding our world.

Buy Michael's books
MindMatters on Youtube

Beyond the Schizo-Autistic Worldview: Introducing the Matter with Things

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Our understanding of each other, ourselves, the world, science and philosophy is in a sorry state. Ratiocentric, transactional, materialistic, and narcissistic assumptions dominate over a more coherent and understanding. We're living in the left hemisphere. But what is the alternative? And if the left-hemisphere view of the world is so often destructive, what place does it hold in the broader, right-hemisphere picture? And what does this imply about the nature of man, and of reality? Iain McGilchrist has written a remarkable book in which he answers these questions: The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. Today on MindMatters we are again joined by Lucien to introduce the book's many important insights.

Princely Politics: Why Machiavelli Still Matters Today

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0500

Was Machiavelli an evil mastermind? A Svengali manipulator and corrupter of princes, worthy of the contemporary descriptor "Machiavellian"? Was he, rather, the first political scientist - an empiricist and pragmatist simply describing what he saw as the way things were? Or was he, simply, a politician? Today on MindMatters we discuss Machiavelli's short classic, The Prince. So join us as we try to make sense of the world of princely politics and the relevance of Machiavelli's work today. The times may have changed, but politics not so much - which suggests that perhaps Machiavelli was on to something.

The New Unclean: How Our Psychology Was Hijacked to Make Us See Each Other as the Enemy

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 14:00:00 -0500

Are the vaccine hesitant really deserving of being called irresponsible conspiracy-minded nationalists who are ignorant of science - or other denigrating and pejorative mainstream media characterizations? Is it possible that many who are wary of, or outright resistant to, getting the jab - actually have some very legitimate reasons for thinking and feeling in the ways that they do? Is there, in fact, a whole set of values and ‘moral tastebuds’ that a rather large part of the left-leaning population and political class are being dismissive of out of hand, and out of all proportion? And what facets of human psychology are at hand when others are seen as potential vectors of disease? In short, why are some vaccine hesitant, and why are others so keen to demonize them?

This week on MindMatters we look at an in-depth examination of these issues as they’re explored in Norman Doidge’s seminal essay "Needle Points". No stranger to the study of how people think, and why, Doidge, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author of The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain’s Way of Healing, examines the foundations of vaccine-hesitancy, and why, far from being “fringe” or “paranoid”, they have a legitimacy that simply cannot, and shouldn’t be, ignored by anyone taking a position on this highly contentious subject matter. He also discusses the "behavioral immune system" and what it can teach us about what is going on. Doidge so successfully outlines his needle points in his work that colleague Jordan Peterson encouraged him to produce a video narrating the text which may be watched here.

A PDF of the essay may be obtained here.

Schizo-autistic Philosophy, Ponerology and the Deranged View of Humanity

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 13:00:00 -0500

Many of our most basic assumptions about life, values and reality itself come to us from the thinking and writing of some of our best known philosophers. But what if some of those leading figures were only ever capable of understanding reality with what Ian McGilchirst might consider half a brain, and what Andrew M. Lobaczewski called a schizoidally impoverished worldview? How would we even know? What may be some of the signs to look for? And what are the implications for a largely unsuspecting society that eats, breathes and lives in such a psychological environment?

Today on MindMatters we discus the "schizo-autistic" worldview, its flaws, and how it has dominated the intellectual life of humanity for at least the past 200 years. From Descartes and Kant to Freud, Marx and Ryle, this style of thinking has its uses, but can never provide an adequate picture of reality and how to act within it. If that isn’t enough to burst your bubble of illusions, we also discuss Machiavelli and what he may actually have achieved in bringing to light the true intentions, workings and dynamics of the political class.

R.G. Collingwood - The Forgotten Philosopher

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 13:00:00 -0500

Primarily known for his philosophy of history, British philosopher R.G. Collingwood's life was cut short in 1943 at the age of 53. As Ray Monk puts it, his replacement by Gilbert Ryle "changed the course of philosophy forever," and it in a good way. Collingwood's clear, expansive, and incisive style was replaced by the ratiocentric style of the analytic philosophers. But despite his lack of popularity today, Collingwood's works remain a source of profound insight and clear thought. From history and aesthetics, to metaphysics, religion, and political theory, Collingwood was one of the twentieth century's great thinkers, and today, to discuss his life and work (including his classic Autobiography), we are joined by the newest member of the MindMatters team, Lucien Koch.

Follow the Science? A Peak Behind the Curtain of Institutional Science

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 16:00:00 -0500

How many scientists engage in unethical behavior? Does peer review even work? What is the reproducibility crisis? The "white hat" bias? Science has acquired a reputation of mythical proportions, but there are enough skeletons in the closet to warrant some skepticism about its many claims. At its best, science in an indispensable means of approaching truth, but at its worst it can be shortsighted and even just plain wrong.

Today on MindMatters we read some excerpts from Iain McGilchrist's recent book The Matter with Things on the nature of institutional science, with a case study on one of its worst offenders: public health.

The Creativity and Humanity of John Lennon

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 13:00:00 -0500

Peter Jackson’s excellent new documentary Get Back provides an inside view of one of legendary rock band The Beatles' last recording sessions and their final public performance. Inspired by our viewing of the three-part documentary, today on MindMatters we discuss our thoughts about not only the Beatles and the nature of creativity, but also musical giant John Lennon’s incredible artistry, the role he chose for himself post-Beatles, and how he chose to make constructive use of his considerable fame and talent to raise political awareness.

Few artists in history are gifted with such creativity and influence so as to make them the enemy of presidents and intelligence agencies, and yet that was exactly what John Lennon was before his life was cut tragically short by so-called ‘lone nutter’ Mark David Chapman. What Lennon might have done with a full life one can only, sadly, speculate. But we can look back at his all-too-brief life, celebrate his accomplishments, acknowledge his flaws, and recognize the power he had to move millions with his heart and with his message.

Wall Street and the Russian Revolution, with Richard B. Spence

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 15:00:00 -0500

History is rarely cut and dried, but important historical events are quite often portrayed in a very limited context, providing a very narrow understanding of how the world actually works. Or how the omission of a certain set of facts can almost completely upend our ‘map of reality’; the commonly understood factors which brought about the Russian Revolution of 1917 being just such a story.

When we can begin to ask whether or not the U.S. government was actively engaged in undermining the Tsarist power structure in Russia, or how, at the same time, some of the largest and most powerful figures in American banking and industry helped organize and fund radical left causes there, or how U.S.-based media magnates twisted the news out of Russia to fit the agendas of the above - then we may start getting somewhere..

This week we speak with author and historian Richard B. Spence about his book Wall Street and the Russian Revolution, and delving into the data, agendas and dynamics that led to what is arguably one of the most profoundly destructive developments of the 20th century. And if the broader picture presented is more accurate than the more simplistic view, then we will surely be better equipped to see and understand what it is the Western world may be experiencing right now.

Books for the New Year, and Responding to a Reader Comment

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 14:00:00 -0500

Today on MindMatters we give a preview of what's to come in 2022, including some of the books we've been reading: Richard Spence's "Wall Street and the Russian Revolution" and Iain McGilchrist's "The Matter with Things." We also respond to a reader comment. Are we ignoring the dangers of rightwing authoritarianism and overplaying the dangers on the left?

The Managerial Revolution and the Circulation of the Elites

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 14:00:00 -0500

MindMatters is back! On this New Year's episode, we discuss the work of Michael McConkey on the managerial revolution in the West, its relevance for ponerology, and McConkey's new substack "The Circulation of Elites," which discusses all these topics. Tune in for insights on the "new class", why it provides the perfect cover for political psychopaths, the fundamental (but fixable) weaknesses inherent in liberalism, and more.

The Molecule of More: The Strange Psychology of Dopamine

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 07:00:00 -0400

When is a stop sign just a stop sign, and not a hidden message from your mother? Why are we excited about new things, only to become bored with them when the novelty wears off? This week on MindMatters we discuss the book The Molecule of More by Dr. Daniel Lieberman and Michael E. Long. During the discussion we cover the fine line between creativity and madness, how it is that most of what we tell ourselves about our behavior is post-hoc narrative creation, and more. Join us as we take a closer look at dopamine, a chemical that has a strong influence over our behavior and is responsible for much of our modern world.

Plato All the Way Down: Solving Biblical Mysteries with Russell Gmirkin

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 13:00:00 -0400

What happens when you combine the investigative mentation of Sherlock Holmes with the adventurous spirit Indiana Jones? Join MindMatters today as we find out! We are joined by solver of mysteries and detective of antiquities Russell Gmirkin, author of two groundbreaking books on the composition of the Old Testament, and another soon to be published. In his first book, Russell boldly argued that the Old Testament is a Hellenistic book, composed in the early third century BC. In his second, he showed the reliance of the biblical laws on Plato's. His next, titled 'Plato’s Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts: Cosmic Monotheism and Terrestrial Polytheism in the Primordial History', will show the reliance of the Genesis creation accounts on Timaeus and Critias.

Join us as we talk about all these topics, plus forays into Russell's academic papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the historical basis for King Solomon, the roots of Western civilization, and what it was like to be the son of the closest thing the CIA had to a James Bond! All this and more on this episode of MindMatters.

Gurdjieff, Fourth Way, and Solioonensius in the New Normal - with Alan Francis

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 13:00:00 -0400

Gurdjieff escaped the Russian Empire during the outbreak of mass madness otherwise known as the Great Russian Revolution. He lived and taught in France during the Nazi occupation. But the connection between Gurdjieff, the Fourth Way, and totalitarianism isn't much discussed, so on this episode of MindMatters we welcome back Alan Francis of the International School of the Fourth Way to discuss the place and function of the Work in the current rumblings of mass madness.

Alan stresses the importance of maintaining a personal inner presence, working with others and for a larger aim. Large social projects inevitably devolve - often to mass murder and injustice. But meaningful change can only come from the individual. Alan also discusses fear - its purpose and and how to manage it - the opportunities offered by the present times for self-development, and updates us on his progress opening a Fourth Way school in Spain (click here to support his work), as well as his upcoming book.

MindMatters on odysee
Audio on BuzzSprout

Brain Thoughts: Norm MacDonald, Death, Humor, and Bond Villain Klaus Schwab

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 14:00:00 -0400

Wherein your MindMatters hosts share their brain thoughts on recent news and random things, like the death of Norm MacDonald, death itself, humor, Nicki Minaj, and why Klaus Schwab needs his own action figure.

MindMatters on odysee: https://odysee.com/@MindMatters:4
Audio on BuzzSprout: https://mindmatters.buzzsprout.com/

How Did We Get Here? The Atrophy of Liberalism in the West, with Nicholas Capaldi

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we interview renowned American philosopher Nicholas Capaldi, author of numerous books, including The Art of Deception and the definitive biography of John Stuart Mill. Recently retired, Professor Capaldi reflects on his experiences teaching, the increasingly oppressive climate in American universities, the political philosophy of Mill, and why things have gotten so crazy in the West. Erudite and engaging, Capaldi takes us deep into the American political psyche with the hope of finding a way out of the current crisis.

MindMatters on odysee: https://odysee.com/@MindMatters:4

The Rise of Homo Americanus with Zbigniew Janowski

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 14:00:00 -0400

Was the fall of Soviet communism 30 years ago a liberation, or just the replacement of one totalitarian ideology with another? Today on MindMatters we interview Polish philosopher Zbigniew Janowski about his recent book, Homo Americanus: The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy in America. In a quest to understand current trends in American society and politics, Professor Janowski revisited the classics: Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, Orwell, and especially Huxley. His collection of meditations on the totalitarianism metastasizing in the West today rums the gamut from ideology and politics to psychology and technology. Join us as we discuss Zbigniew's book, his experiences in Poland, the U.S., and Canada, teaching, and thorny topics like equality, hierarchy, and perhaps the most controversial of all of them: gendered language!

Janowski is also co-editor of a recent collection of the writings of J.S. Mill.
Janowski on The Postil.
MindMatters on odysee.

Meaning All the Way Down: The Wonders and Mysteries of Language with Juliana Barembuem

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 13:00:00 -0400

Language. We use it to speak, obtain information and enrich our minds. We’re immersed in it every day and would find it nearly impossible to communicate and exist in the ways that we’re used to without it. And yet the use of language - and all its varied and nuanced components - are very largely taken for granted by us until we take a step or two back to think about how language works, how incredibly complex it is, what many languages have in common, what makes language successful (or not), and what some research into the origins of language suggest about how little we truly know about them.

This week on MindMatters we are joined by Juliana Barembuem of Language with Chu, a polyglot and long-time student of language, who presents a number of ‘outside of the box’ perspectives on language; what do languages have in common with discoveries in biology? Is language a feature of intelligent design? How is the use of language abused and in service of ideas that actually confuse and misinform - to name just a few. One thing to realize is that the deeper we get into this discussion the more we see that these lines of inquiry are really just the beginning of this conversation.

Is Liberalism the New Totalitarianism? A Conversation with Ryszard Legutko

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:00:00 -0400

During the Cold War, the world's liberal democracies, like the USA, were widely perceived as the bastion of freedom, especially to those behind the Iron Curtain. But the past three decades have caused many to revise their views. With the rise of totalitarian thinking and practice in the West in those years, the question must be asked: what happened?

Professor of Philosophy and conservative politician Ryszard Legutko pondered these questions in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in his 2012 book The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies (published in English in 2016), and his latest book, The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols (2021). Legutko argues that at its root, liberalism as ideology shares many of the same features as communism. Despite their differences, both share essentially the same views of history, the future, politics, ideology, and religion. These tendencies cause ideology to seep into every aspect of daily life ("the personal is political") - in liberalism, to a degree even the communists weren't able to achieve, despite their best efforts. These trends have only gotten worse in the years since the book's release.

Today on MindMatters we talk to Professor Legutko about his books, life under communism, editing samizdat, the recent controversy with his university's "office of safety and equality," and the time he got sued for calling some students "spoiled brats."

MindMatters is on odysee.

The Postmodern Bible: An Interpretation for Everyone!

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -0400

For some it is the holiest book, they only one you'll ever need. For others it is a tool of conquering. Some find in it the loftiest values, others only the basest superstitions. Today on MindMatters we delve into this contradictory world of interpretations: religion as a source of extrinsic morality, or a call to the spark of divinity within, or somewhere in between. Perhaps, just like humanity, the Bible is multilevel in nature, with a little something for everyone, from saints to psychopaths.

MindMatters on odysee

Cliodynamics and the Secular Cycles of History

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 14:00:00 -0400

Does history really repeat? If so, how, and why? We discussed the "fourth turning" on a previous episode of MindMatters. According to Strauss and Howe, the United States has entered a time of crisis which could see societal collapse, revolution, or war. However, their theory has its problems. While suggestive on the descriptive level, it has not been scientifically supported. Enter Peter Turchin.

Today we continue our discussion of historical cycles by looking at cliodynamics, a field of study pioneered by Turchin. Turchin's work gives scientific support to the idea that cycles are an essential feature of civilization. Empires rise and fall. Periods of stagnation and crisis end in war, revolution, and collapse. These trends, and the factors that determine them, can be measured and modeled. And all the indicators show that the U.S. has indeed entered a time of crisis, along with Europe - on par with the conditions that led to the American Civil War.

Today on MindMatters we discuss the outlines of Turchin's work, how it applies to American history, and what it might mean for the future.

Finding Your Red Line: Lessons from Milgram and the Holocaust

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

As things continue to get worse culturally and politically, it pays to ask oneself how far one will go. What are the limits to my obedience to authority? At what point do I become what I hate? To avoid becoming a monster, the first step is to draw some red lines: things we simply will not do. But will we actually stick to them, or simply go along with the crowd when the challenge proves too difficult? History is not flattering to our high ideals and self-images. When it comes down to it, the vast majority of people will do whatever they are told to do, given the right conditions. That's why a study of history and the famous Milgram experiment can be so helpful.

Today on MindMatters we look at the limits of obedience to authority (with reference to Christopher Browning's book Ordinary Men, and Philip Zimbardo's Lucifer Effect). These facts about human nature may be depressing, but they also offer the way out by providing the motivation to prepare for the future, now. Without a bit of self-knowledge, there is no guarantee you will not be just another miserable cell in the collective mob. But with it, there's at least a chance of hope that you can resist, and that others will be inspired to follow suit.

Arthur Versluis: The New Inquisitions vs the Mystical State

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 15:00:00 -0400

Arthur Versluis, professor of religious studies at Michigan State University, is the author of many books and an expert on Western mysticism and esotericism, especially the Christian theosophic tradition. He's also an expert on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism, the subject of his excellent 2006 book, The New Inquisitions.

Today on MindMatters we talk with Arthur about a range of subjects: totalitarianism, ponerology, gnosis, Christian mystics, decentralization, and the "mystical state," a vision of politics informed not by dualistic and secular philosophy, but the mystical center of the spiritual life - the topic of his 2011 book of the same name. Arthur also talks about his latest book, a conversation with psychologist and Christian theosophist Robert J. Faas.

Arthur's website

MindMatters on LBRY

Phillip Barlag: Murderers, Tyrants and Lunatics - A History of Rome at Its Worst

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 13:00:00 -0400

You thought the Targaryens were bad...

Extreme avarice. Fratricide. Megalomania. Debauchery. Genocide. At the height of its power and influence ancient Rome was led by some truly crazy and terrifying people. Caligula and Nero come to mind as the most famous, but they had a lot of company: men (and women) whose unbridled ambition and wielding of power were employed to absolutely horrible and destructive effect. And even if they were assassinated (which was quite often the case!), another grossly incompetent and tyrannical psychopath was quite often installed to replace them! Knowing this history, it seems like a true wonder that Rome was as relatively stable as it was for as long as it was.

But who were these individuals whose names we are probably unfamiliar with? What levers of influence did they use to assume the seat of power? And how did the famed empire manage to survive the rule of such figures?

Join us this week on MindMatters as we talk to author Phillip Barlag and discuss his new book Evil Roman Emperors: The Shocking History of Ancient Rome's Most Wicked Rulers from Caligula to Nero and More - and get a glimpse into a place and time that may make the evils we see now pale in comparison.

MindMatters on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@MindMatters:4

The Emperor Has New Clothes: Wokism Is a Mask of Sanity

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -0400

As we continue to observe the ever-encroaching signs of ‘woke’ thinking, ideology, language, behavior, and political policy in western society we find it necessary to take a step back and ask ourselves: what is wokism actually a sign of? What undergirds it, stratifies it and gives its “power”? And more specifically, what are the underlying psychological conditions and deficiencies among so many - that make this virulent and dangerous movement what its come to be as we’re seeing it today?

Today on MindMatters we dissect wokism using the lens of ponerology. Wokism isn't just a bad idea. It's a mask for something much worse, just as communism and fascism were in the twentieth century.

MindMatters on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@MindMatters:4

Matthew Ehret: Technocracy’s Seeds of Transhumanism

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 13:00:00 -0400

The ‘re-organization’ of the world’s societies, cultures, economies and politics seem to be occurring at an ever rapid clip. Groups like the WEF, UNESCO, the WHO and other hugely influential and interconnected bodies all seem to be telling us, and the governments of the world, ‘how it's going to be’, and why it is ‘all for our own good’. A relatively small group of individuals are actually redefining what healthy means, how we should think about money, food, technology, ideologies, the weather, and even each other.These people have formed a technocratic infrastructure with a reach and a wrongheadedness that boggles the mind, and when the implications of their policies are realized, terrorizes the heart.

But this juggernaut of pathological group-think did not spring up overnight, and did not come from nowhere. Someone, and their groups, had to have come up with the “scientific” and philosophical doctrines that dictated the “logic” and “reasoning” behind such transhumanist, socialist, authoritarian and eugenic policies and developments as we’re seeing today. And who better to point out such information and make the connections than researcher and journalist Matthew Ehret (Canadian Patriot, Rising Tide Foundation). Join us this week on MindMatters as Matthew puts some giant historical figures in a whole new light, and shows how these famous personalities’ thinking and huge influence have shaped an agenda for control that is as pervasive as it is monstrous.

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Woke Revolution, Mass Hysteria, and the Fourth Turning

Mon, 24 May 2021 18:00:00 -0400

The 2010s and 2020s are a crisis point in Western societies - a time that has the potential to give birth to something better than what came before, or something much, much worse. Today on MindMatters we're going cyclical. The hysteroidal cycle from Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology, generational theory from Strauss and Howe's The Fourth Turning. And along the way, we take a gander at some of the sparks of mass hysteria in recent years, culled from James Lindsay's article, "The Rise of the Woke Cultural Revolution."

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Surviving Materialism, Accepting the Afterlife

Mon, 10 May 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Despite the plethora of anecdotes and scientific studies suggesting the existence of an 'afterlife,' the Western world as a whole is still largely in the dark about this all-important subject. Though good information does continue to present itself, there are many who are all-too-willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater - with a bucket of dogma informed by scientific materialism.

This week on MindMatters we look at some of the most interesting research on the subject, including the recent Netflix docu-series Surviving Death, based on journalist Leslie Kean's book of the same name. We also look at its relationship to consciousness, psi and values - and how the largely narrow perspective on these themes only goes to serve to the "modern" trend to accept the nihilistic and toxic strain of ideologies, postmodernism, scientism, and other limiting belief systems. (See also Stephen Braude's Immortal Remains)

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Mary Balogh: The Meaning and Purpose of Romance

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 13:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we have the pleasure of speaking with multiple New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh. Mary is the author of over ninety historical romance novels and dozens of novellas. In this wide-ranging discussion Mary shares her thoughts on romance, her writing process, the nature of inspiration, and the meaning and purpose with which she imbues her novels. There's a reason romance is the bestselling genre of fiction, and there's a reason Mary Balogh is among the best of the best. And if you're not already a fan, tune in, and check out her books! You won't regret it.

Mary's website: https://marybalogh.com/
Mary on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaryBalogh/
MindMatters on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@MindMatters:4

Phillip Barlag: The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:00:00 -0400

Power-hungry despot. Dictator for life. Vain ladies' man. Murdered by his peers for aspiring to be king. That was Julius Caesar, at least according to his critics and modern interpreters. But countless portrayals of the most famous Roman - in histories, novels, plays and films - omit what were quite likely his greatest features: his multifaceted genius, unparalleled leadership skill, and, remarkable for the times in which he lived, his humanity. Those skills - and their relevance for leadership today - have gone mostly unnoticed.

So this week on MindMatters we discuss The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar with author Phillip Barlag. This examination of Caesar’s accomplishments not only brings a fresh perspective on who Caesar was, but also hones in on the qualities that made him an exemplary leader of ancient Rome and what lessons we can draw from the accounts of his life and character. What emerges is an alternative reading of Caesar, not as a wholly self-serving tyrant, but a politically skilled reformer, man of the people, and all around exceptional human being.

Preorder Phillip's new book here
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Tom Costello: Yes, Virginia, There Is a Left-wing Authoritarianism!

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we interview Thomas Costello, Emory University PhD candidate and lead author of a groundbreaking new study on leftwing authoritarianism. Long thought by social psychologists to be the exclusive of social conservatives (RWA), studies of authoritarianism on the left have been few and far between. Until now. Despite the almost willful ignorance about the subject in the field, LWA really does exist, and Costello and colleagues are clarifying its structure as a valid construct. It turns out that rightwing and leftwing authoritarians have a lot in common - and some differences too. Join us as we pick Tom's brain about the history of the study of authoritarianism, how it became associated exclusively with conservatism, and what the latest studies are revealing about authoritarians on the left: those anti-conventionalists who channel their aggression against existing hierarchies and favor top-down censorship, and who are more willing to participate in political violence than their peers.

Do Not Watch, Comrade! 'The Lives of Others' Is Thought Crime

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

Soon after World War II, Germany was cleaved in two by the allies who won the war. 'West Germany' came under the influence of Western Europe and the US, and East Germany under the Soviet Union. The eastern section of Germany, under the political and ideological influence of Communism, came to develop one of the most notoriously oppressive secret police organizations in modern history: the Stasi. On this week's show, we discuss Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck's moving and expertly directed...

Campy Covers, Deep Psychology: Discover a Most Surprising Oasis of Virtue and Values

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

At this time of sweeping societal change, ideological propaganda is bombarding western culture everywhere one looks. No tradition or institution is spared, particularly when it comes to our value systems and the most basic ideas of what it means to be human: family, relationships, sex. The cult of wokeness must be adhered to, or else. Refuse to comply and you risk being labeled, demonized, cancelled. But the onslaught of pseudo-reality has one survivor, hidden in plain sight for all this...

Stalking the Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez, Intraspecies Predator

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

In 1985, greater Los Angeles and San Francisco were struck with an ever-growing list of brutal murders, rapes and robberies of dozens of individuals, including children. The crimes shocked and terrified not only the families of the victims and the communities where the crimes took place - but also captured national attention - as the viciousness and malevolence involved in these acts were made public. The range of victims, and multiple MOs, stumped investigators and suggested that the serial...

Joshua Slocum: We're Living in a Cluster B World

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Joshua Slocum hosts Disaffected - the best new podcast on the market. Our society isn't just getting crazier - it's getting Cluster B crazy: borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders and their traits are off the charts. In the universities, media, social media, and the Democratic establishment - something is happening, but few can put their finger on it. Josh can and does, and he's not afraid to tell it like it is. He can see it because he has lived through...

1984: Doubleplusgood Prolefeed You Must Watch!

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Want to avoid the joycamps? Afraid of being unpersoned? Then be a goodthinker and watch 1984! There's a reason the term "Orwellian" is used so often today. From the news to politics, the novels and allegories of writer George Orwell help explain how and why the Big Lies are disseminated, and with good reason. Orwell grokked the true nature of totalitarianism, and how its pathological twisting of reality perception helps it achieve and maintain power. In the year 1984, and in recognition of...

Mr. Jones and the 'Holodomor' Red Pill - What Happened During Stalin's Famine?

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Based on true events, Agnieszka Holland's 2019 film Mr. Jones tells the story of an English government functionary who, hot off the heels of interviewing Hitler in the early 1930's, tasked himself with going to Soviet Russia to interview Stalin. The story's protagonist, Gareth Jones, seeks to inform Stalin of Hitler's plans for European domination and plant the seeds of an alliance between England and the Soviet Union that could offset the Nazi party's plans. In the process, Jones learns...

7 Books to Understand What's Really Going On

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Today on MindMatters we share seven books to understand what's really going on in the world today: in the universities, on the streets, in government; the ideologies running the show, the psychopathy behind them, and the rise of soft totalitarianism. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents Cynical Theories: How...

Wokeism: From Ideology to Mask of Sanity

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Wokeness may appear crazy to its critics, but underneath the surface is something even more sinister than most are willing to admit. As an ideology with wide appeal, critical social justice theory has served its purpose as the lockpick to western civilization, as James Lindsay has put it. It has opened the gates to the highest political power, and every aspect of western culture. But what has entered through the gates? Today on MindMatters we look at Wokeness through the lens of ponerology...

Dystopias Are Really Utopias - For Psychopaths

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500

The mind-virus of psychopathic thinking is all around us. Day after day, individuals are falling prey to the paramorals and paralogic of a weaponized pathological ideology. It has its own purpose-built language, government polices, and social norms, making it difficult to escape. But it is not real. And the lies only seem to be getting bigger, and more numerous. What is the endgame? Utopia. But for whom? And why do utopias always end up as dystopias? These answers and more this week on...

Pseudo-realities, Psychopathy and the Origins of Totalitarianism

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Fifteen years ago the world was introduced to the research of Polish psychologist Andrzej Łobaczewski in his seminal work Political Ponerology. In it, he outlined the danger of pathological revolutionary movements, the poisonous influence of psychopaths in positions of power, and the real origins of totalitarianism - as well as why relatively normal people are left woefully vulnerable to pathological thinking and psychological 'infection'. When the book was first published the "forever war...

Dr. George Simon: The Character Disturbance Epidemic and What We Can Do About It

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500

In 1996 Dr. George K. Simon wrote and self-published In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People, almost single-handedly changing the 'self-help' landscape in the U.S. The book remains a best-seller. With decades of clinical research under his wing, Dr. Simon saw that a very large percentage of psychological and emotional issues people suffered from were due to the effects of the extremely manipulative individuals in their lives. Learning to recognize the signs...

MindMatters: End of Year Special: Living in Truth and Discerning the Lies

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500

Science. Politics. Religion. Interpersonal relationships. There is no sphere of human study, thinking, belief or behavior that isn't affected in some way shape or form by what we believe to be true or false. That's what it all boils down to. And yet doing the work to understand ourselves and the world in which we live is no small task - as we are constantly being presented with policies, ideas and perspectives that present this challenge to us in increasingly, significant and meaningful...

MindMatters: Picking Matthew Ehret's Brain: How Darwinism Took Over the World, and Why Ertugrul Is Awesome

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500

When looking at the news, the best analysis quite often comes with a fair bit of 'dot connecting'. Ideally, we seek to understand our world and the major events unfolding as deeply as possible, but we're too often served a dish of two-dimensional news that furthers our knowledge just so much and not much more. So when a writer in the alternative news world manages to draw upon history, philosophy, science, and any number of other areas and disciplines - broadening our perspective in the...

MindMatters: Interview with Rod Dreher: How to Survive the Coming Soft Totalitarianism

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500

In 1974 world-renowned author of The Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a short essay to his Soviet compatriots beseeching them to live in truth. The message, called "Live Not By Lies" was a call to not feed into the communist government's ubiquitous daily diet of falsehoods used to perpetuate the overwhelmingly oppressive system in place. Fast forward nearly fifty years and western civilization now finds itself facing an uncannily similar situation - ideologically, politically...

MindMatters: Why Pop Culture Gets the Hero Archetype Wrong, and Ertugrul Succeeds

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

We've all seen them: Hollywood superhero blockbusters where the protagonist is a two-dimensional cardboard cutout, a shallow reflection of what makes a real hero a model of inspiration to begin with. All too reliant on presenting a spectacle to dazzle the eyes and the ears, these productions bombard us with imagery, ideas, and mediocre writing - in lieu of a fully drawn character who embodies the virtues, behavior and soul of the archetypal hero. Quite often we don't know what we've been...

MindMatters: Navigating The Chaos

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

As current events and crazy people continue to spiral downhill with ever greater frequency and intensity, we find ourselves challenged not to react or respond in ways that are detrimental to ourselves and those around us. From both within and without each of us faces the choices of what to believe, how to feel - and what the appropriate responses to life could and should be. Will we fall prey to the Adversary's thinking and control, or will we follow the archetype of individuation, growth...

MindMatters: The Impenetrable Fortress of Thoughtitude: When Belief Trumps Truth

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

We all have belief systems, maps to reality that inform our perspectives and help us form the bedrock values we have about ourselves, others, and the world at large. This means thoughts on everything from religion and politics to how we interact with friends, and the specific truths about reality we have come to know and adapted to in our everyday lives. But when it comes to taking in new facts, what are the psychological and emotional processes involved in bringing ourselves to a higher or...

MindMatters: Brainwashing Is Easy, Thinking Isn't

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

Covid-19. Trump. Social Justice. War. Human rights. Economics. Whatever the issue, it seems that every day we are being told we must adopt a particular position. And to do so "or else". Under incredible pressure to be in the right and to feel good about ourselves, we are bombarded with "ways to think" that are quite often delivered by overt propaganda, but that are also, perhaps more than we realize, covert and not aware to us consciously. How do the social programmers do this? Who are they?...

MindMatters: The Weird World of Color Perception and Adaptation: Interview with Dr. Katie Tregillus

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone likes a good optical illusion, but fewer understand them. Today we interview Katie Tregillus PhD about her research on color perception and adaptation. Katie takes us through the strange and complex world of color, from basic physiology up to conscious perception. How can different people looking at the same image 'see' totally different colors? How do colored lenses change our perception of the world of color? And what are some of the craziest visual illusions and perceptual...

MindMatters: What Is Our Place in the Cosmos, and Why the New Atheists Are Wrong

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters, Harrison and Adam use one of David Ray Griffin's recent books as a jumping-off point to bring together many threads from previous episodes. What is our place in the cosmos? What can the study of nature tell us about ourselves, and about the cosmic mind? From the smallest bits of 'matter' and energy, to animals, minds, and meaning, we tie together our previous discussions with Ken Pedersen, John Buchanan, James Carpenter, along with ideas from Gurdjieff, Ibn Arabi,...

MindMatters: Susannah Hays Interview: Polyvagal Theory, Gurdjieff and the Evolution of Man

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

In recent years researchers like Stephen Porges have brought a newfound understanding of the body's all-important polyvagal system to greater and deeper awareness. The tenth cranial nerve, or vagus nerve, has a great impact on the health of major organs (including the brain), and even direct impact on a human being's 'higher' functioning. Interestingly however, is the historic fact that the wandering nerve has also been the subject of research and speculation for hundreds of years, among the...

MindMatters: The Allure and Contagion of the Criminal Mind

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

In such works as Inside the Criminal Mind and The Myth of the Out of Character Crime criminologist Dr. Stanton E. Samenow conceptualized and gave credence to the specific traits and behaviors of the 'criminal mind'. Such works not only show the thinking processes involved in law-breaking and antisocial behavior, but also (however unintentionally) instruct the more normally oriented of us of the self-entitlement one can and should be wary of - within our own character structure. Making use of...

MindMatters: Ibn 'Arabi's Alchemy of Human Happiness: Interview with Stephen Hirtenstein

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

The philosophy and practice of alchemy, in one form or another, has been around for millennia and espoused by many different cultures, the idea centering around the chemical and physical transformation of some common ore to its highest most valuable state, gold. Modern chemistry naturally discounts this view as outdated and simply not true. But what if that is to miss the point? What if the true alchemical process has little to do with base and precious metals and everything to do man's...

MindMatters: Opening One's Mind to the Implications of Intelligent Design

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

One of the most profoundly enlightening and potentially life-changing areas of study one can pursue today is that of intelligent design: the idea that life, in so many of its forms, is so complex - and on so many levels - that it couldn't possibly have come into being without the information injected into it by some form of 'higher intelligence'. While one cannot say with absolute certainty what that 'higher intelligence' may actually be, or whence it comes (or how it 'designs'), the...

MindMatters: Interview with John Buchanan: Alfred North Whitehead - A Philosophy For Our Time

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

We've made numerous references to Alfred North Whitehead and process philosophy on MindMatters, but who was Whitehead, and what makes his philosophy so interesting, and relevant? Today on the show, we are joined by John Buchanan, co-editor of the recently released volume Rethinking Consciousness, in which he has a paper highlighting the similarities between Jim Carpenter's first sight theory and Whitehead's process philosophy. In our discussion with John we discuss Whitehead, some of the...

MindMatters: Interview with Ken Pedersen: Quarks, DNA, Consciousness - It's All Information, Always Has Been

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Evolution vs. intelligent design; scientism vs. science; the accidental-universe worldview vs. the information-system worldview - these are the battle lines for what is perhaps one the most essential scientific/religious and philosophical debates in the world today. Are we the product of a series of accidental mutations, built on top of accidental chemistry, accidental particle physics, and accidental quantum theory? Or were we - and the cosmos - designed? In his book Modern Science Proves...

MindMatters: Interview with Alan Francis: The Fourth Way, Taoism and Spiritual Development

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Today on MindMatters we interview Alan Francis, a longtime Fourth Way practitioner, teacher and author of the book Secrets of the Fourth Way. Alan is the founder of the Russian Center for Gurdjieff Studies as well as the International School of the Fourth Way, planned to open this coming winter. Our discussion covers a range of topics, from Alan's early life experiences that led him to the Fourth Way, basic Fourth Way topics like kundabuffer and Gurdjieff's take on kundalini, addiction, and...

MindMatters: Dark Triad Politics: The Psychology of the Far Left and Alt Right

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy are the three components of what psychologists and social scientists call the 'Dark Triad' - personality traits that inform how one thinks and what one does. And dark they are because these personality features represent some of the very worst that humanity has to offer itself. As we continue to see the chaos and destruction being savaged on Western society by far left groups who claim to be fighting for justice and equality, some new studies go...

MindMatters: Follow the Leader - Étienne de La Boétie's Politics of Obedience

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

If tyrannical leaders are so few, and the people over which they rule so many - then why do the masses so often take it on the proverbial chin? What prevents the vast numbers of the oppressed from refusing to submit to the relatively small numbers of individuals who are doing all the oppressing? It's a good question that many are asking today - and that French political essayist Étienne de La Boétie asked more than 450 years ago in his now classic treatise The Politics of Obedience: The...

MindMatters: First Sight, Polyvagal Theory, and Contemplative Practices

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

What does meditation or contemplation have to do with our physiology? And what is the possible connection between our autonomic nervous system and a coherent theory of psi? Today on MindMatters we bring together three topics: contemplative practice (see our interviews with Fr. Joseph Azize), first sight theory (see our interview with Dr. Jim Carpenter), and Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory, as discussed in a recent book by Stanley Rosenberg, Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve....

MindMatters: Interview with Gary Lachman: The Return of Holy Russia

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

The American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce once said, "Through Russia, comes the hope of the world." He spoke those words in the era of Stalin, and it would be another 60 years or so before the end of Communism. But starting in the tumultuous 90s, the great country straddling East and West not only has made a comeback on the world stage - it is seeing a spiritual revival of sorts. Forgotten thinkers are being resurrected in the minds of Russians, new movements are cropping up, and old ones...

MindMatters: The Ideal And Value of Beauty

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

From time to time we are struck with something we may deem "beautiful". We see a work of art, a landscape, or a face that speaks to an almost ephemeral ideal which demands our attention, acknowledgement and contemplation. But why does this occur? What is it that we, as individuals, are perceiving as beautiful? And what exactly is beauty anyway? In exploring this largely taken for granted dimension to human experience we ask: What place should it hold in our lives, and what value do we hold...

MindMatters: Father Joseph Azize Interview: Gurdjieff's Legacy and the 'New Work'

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Few scholars and writers in the world today have the experience and in-depth knowledge that Father Joseph Azize has of G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way work. In this new interview with the author of Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation and Exercises, we explore a range of issues : Have students and organizations based on Gurdjieff's work watered down and distorted what the great teacher wrote and instructed? At what point do ideas - in an attempt to make them more "accessible" - lose their power...

MindMatters: The More You Sound Like Everyone Else, The Less Interesting You Are

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

There's a reason teenagers want to be individuals, yet end up sounding like carbon copies of their peers: they actually want to be like everyone else. And while most grown-ups probably think they've grown out of such mindless conformity, they haven't. Adults discussing hot-button issues sound like clones of each other for the same reason: they're not actually thinking for themselves. College and university professors, the mind vice of social media like Twitter, mainstream political pundits,...

MindMatters: Interview with James Carpenter: First Sight, Psi, and Consciousness

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

What is the nature of psi? How does it relate to consciousness? Today on MindMatters we interview Dr. Jim Carpenter about his "first sight" theory, the subject of his revolutionary book by the same name. Carpenter's theory not only accounts for all the experimental data relating to psi; it also integrates current psychological research and a wider understanding of consciousness as a whole. Psi is not an anomaly or a special ability - it is fundamental to mind itself. Dr. Jim Carpenter is...

MindMatters: Try Not To Lie: The Value Of Honesty With The Self And Others

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

As the old adage goes, "The truth shall set you free." But if that's true then why do we quite often have such a difficult time of being honest with ourselves? And just as importantly, why do we struggle so much in being honest with others? Programmed or wired to deny that we have personal shortcomings - or fearing the consequences of honest communication about others' failings - we quite often opt for the easy out, keeping things to ourselves and attempting to avoid the potential pain and...

MindMatters: Ibn Arabi, the Unlimited Mercifier: Interview with Stephen Hirtenstein

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

For many in the West, their first encounter with the 13th-century sufi mystic Ibn Arabi will be in the Turkish drama Resurrection: Ertugrul, available on Netflix and YouTube, where he is portrayed as a wandering spiritual master and adviser, always ready to dispense with the perfect wisdom in any given situation. But who was Ibn Arabi in real life? And why is he called the "Greatest Master"? Today on MindMatters, we interview Stephen Hirtenstein, editor of the Journal of the Ibn Arabi...

MindMatters: Exploring Flatland: A Romance of Hyperdimensional Space

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Before Orwell's masterpiece novel, 1984, about a dystopian society and what politically motivated and propaganda-induced groupthink looked and sounded like, another Englishman by the name of Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote a semi-satirical, allegorical sci-fi novella called Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, in 1884. In his story, Abbott ingeniously uses flat geometric shapes to represent different strata of society in his contemporary experience of Victorian England. Taking aim at his era's...

MindMatters: Directed Panspermia, Intelligent Design and the Role of Psi

Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On today's show we continue our wide-ranging discussion of the Holy Grail, cometary bombardments, and the role of intelligence in the universe. As we've discovered, understanding these three, seemingly unconnected, topics may be more critical than ever to understanding the origins of life and the extreme times the earth is once again going through. While many proponents of intelligent design strive to illustrate the sheer impossibility of 'random' processes to account for the origins of...

MindMatters: The Lighter Side of Space Rocks - The Holy Grail, Directed Panspermia and the Origin of Life

Thu, 14 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

If you think of asteroids, meteors and comets as potentially destructive and life-threatening forces, you're correct. After all, the arrivals of these celestial bodies are typically associated with catastrophic impacts on earth, profound environmental changes, impact winters, plagues and famines. But that's not all. Over the last century, a number of scientists have speculated that they might also bring life to the barren outreaches of the galaxy, such as our solar system. Not only that,...

MindMatters: Sufism: An Introduction To Its Meaning And Purpose

Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Over the past few decades a large amount of the Western public's attention has been drawn to Islam in the form of fundamentalist belief and practice. This movement, and its effects on the Muslim community and Middle Eastern societies in particular, has proved nothing short of disastrous for many. But what is largely unknown to most is the inner tradition, wisdom and philosophy known as Sufism; what some consider to be the 'mystical' dimension of Islam. Through the poems of Rumi, the writings...

MindMatters: The Holy Grail, Comets, Earth Changes and Randall Carlson

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Is the legend of the Holy Grail a warning about earth changes told in story form? Randall Carlson argues that it is - and now is the time to have this secret revealed. We're all familiar with the story of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the legend of the Holy Grail - and the famous symbology that these narratives contain. Dozens of stories over many centuries have expanded on these ideas, and much has been written in academia about what meaning could be derived from them - their...

MindMatters: Why We Need Leisure, or What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400

'Idle hands are the devil's workshop,' we're told. This adage sometimes informs our mad scramble to make ends meet, quite often going non-stop and mostly living to work, with hardly a moment to see who, what and where we are in the vast context of our lives. Many of us are going nowhere fast. Though taking personal responsibility is correctly connected to paying the bills, and is crucial to any kinds of individual growth, there is another type of responsibility we have to ourselves that...

MindMatters: Epictetus: Epic Wisdom, Roman Stoic Style

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400

One of the major exemplars of the philosophical movement known as Stoicism almost 2000 years ago, Epictetus, a former slave, had much to say about taking the right approach to life. Through his teachings, which culminated in the dictated works of his Discourses and Enchiridion, Epictetus expounded on what virtuous living meant and what it should look like - not through theory, but through actual examples drawn from real life and the psychological attitudes one can adopt to make for a more...

MindMatters: Interview with Joseph Azize Pt. 2: The Usefulness of Gurdjieff's Teachings For Our Times

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Delving deeper into some of G.I. Gurdjieff's ideas and practices, we continue our discussion with Father Joseph Azize, author of the recently published book Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation, & Exercises. Among a broad range of related topics covered, Fr. Azize describes the esoteric dynamics of prayer as it relates to the "Four Ideals" exercises and the types of impressions that we may access and 'digest' as a result. The detrimental effects of 'negative emotions' are also examined -...

MindMatters: Interview with Joseph Azize Pt. 1: Gurdjieff, Mysticism, Exercises

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400

For several decades, numerous books and explications have been published on the profoundly insightful philosophy and teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. Some were written by the man himself, and many by those who worked with him. But while Gurdjieff himself included a few of the guided exercises that formed a major part of the actual practice of his ideas in Life Is Real Only Then, When "I Am", until recently no other book has focused on these exercises, which are designed to bring those practicing...

MindMatters: The Hidden Psychological Depth of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0400

The tragic fall that started it all... Darth Vader: we're all familiar with the hulking half-man half-machine embodiment of inhuman domination, brutal ambition and a malevolent will to rule the galaxy with a robotic fist - as portrayed in the very widely seen and loved Star Wars series. But as we look back at what made these almost mythical stories great to begin with, we are reminded of who this character was before he became such a powerful agent of the dark side. As shown in the Star Wars...

MindMatters: Intentional Suffering: Paul and Gurdjieff on the True Meaning of Crucifixion

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0400

The most central image, metaphor and symbol in Christianity is the crucifixion of Jesus. The sign of the cross is ubiquitous in contemporary Western civilization, but what does it really symbolize? What meaning are we meant to derive from it, and how might it be understood and utilized in a way that is vivifying and spirit-strengthening? In this concluding examination of Timothy Ashworth's Paul's Necessary Sin - The Experience of Liberation, we examine the crucifixion in its relation to the...

MindMatters: 'Adulthood of Spirit' - How To Leave Behind Childish Things And Become Spiritually Mature

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Today we discuss the key practices and processes by which individuals come to know themselves, others, and the divine, according to Timothy Ashworth's interpretation of the Apostle Paul's thought in his book Paul's Necessary Sin. Since 'The Fall', humanity has suffered from a 'darkening of the mind' or an identification with the things created - our own physical existence - and a blindness to higher realities. But this devolution, or 'sin', has a constructive component built in, when the...

MindMatters: Necessary Sin - What Was The Apostle Paul Really Saying About The Nature of Spiritual Transformation?

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0500

One of the earliest, most eloquent, and most influential of all advocates for Christianity was the Apostle Paul; his letters are widely quoted the world over. After many centuries of translation, interpretation and analysis, bible scholars and historians have continuously pored over his writings to uncover just what the ancient figure meant, what he truly believed, and what he was trying to convey to the various communities he was reaching out to during the times in which he lived. But have...

MindMatters: Zarathustra Returns! What We Can Learn From The Persian Prophet

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500

Everything old is new again. Or it can be, if we let it. Though several thousand years old, the teachings and guidance for making the right decisions - in all things - can be seen in the words and ideas of Zoroaster, and the writings that grew out of his movement. Seeking to give individuals a view of their place in the grand scheme of life, and acknowledging the part that man has in manifesting a higher order of thought and action - was the 'mission' of the profoundly influential prophet....

MindMatters: Zoroastrianism: The Ancient System of Values That Sought to Change The World, and Did

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500

More than several millennia ago, a spiritual leader in Persia had a very high vision and ideal for humanity that he labored to preach and spread. In what is now known as Iran, this priest and reformer - who we know as Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) - began with a strong conception of both good and evil, and man's choice to be a manifestation of either. He saw this choice, and the awareness of it as a choice - as not only crucial to the future of his tribe and his countrymen, but to the well...

MindMatters: Wake Up! Gurdjieff on Sleep, Knowledge and Politics

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500

In this discussion of G.I. Gurdjieff's central ideas we delve further into the key insights he had on the human individual's state of sleep and the implications that such a condition has for the state of humanity as a whole. 'Self-remembering', 'identification', and 'considering' are just some of the key concepts and terms Gurdjieff used to describe the goals and pitfalls of the individual on the path to self-knowledge. We also discuss what may be Gurdjieff's most lasting legacy: the...

MindMatters: Who Was G.I. Gurdjieff And Why Does It Matter?

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500

Healer, philosopher, psychologist, adventurer, composer, mystic - all describe a facet of who George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was, and what he did. And yet, he may also be called one of the leading figures in 'spiritual' growth that most people have simply never heard of. Gurdjieff's teachings, body of writing and the schools he started and taught were, and are, a profound testament to his insight and vision for a healthy and well functioning human being. On a personal level, he worked with...

MindMatters: Living the Good Life - The Stoic Way

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500

What good is philosophy? For the Stoics, among other schools, philosophy is dead if it is not fully lived. That's why the Stoics presented not just a system of logic and cosmology, but also a way of living - to put into practice the principles on which the system is built. But while the Stoic schools that taught this way of life died out many years ago, that doesn't mean that Stoicism is no longer an option for people today. Stoicism has experienced a revival in recent years. Today on...

MindMatters: That's the Spirit! The Stoic Philosophy of Pneuma

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500

While the ancient philosophy of Stoicism is experiencing a comeback, many are still unfamiliar with some of its more esoteric concepts, like the role of pneuma or spirit in cosmology. The primal stuff of the cosmos - informing matter and mind at different levels of tension - for the Stoics, pneuma is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end of the cosmos. Today on MindMatters, we take a look at some of the basics of Stoic cosmology, how it informs their ethics, and the role it had on early...

MindMatters: Breathe Deep to Reap The Benefits of a Healthy Mind: The Tao of Natural Breathing

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0500

Correct breathing should come as natural to us as, well, breathing. But it doesn't. In fact, most of us so take the simple act of respiration for granted that we have learned to breathe shallowly and, indeed, incorrectly - allowing for a host of all sorts of detrimental knock-on effects. But what does that have to do with the world of ideas and the 'life of the mind' anyway? Well, quite a lot actually as we're coming to learn. This week on MindMatters join us as we delve into Dennis Lewis'...

MindMatters: The Best Thing About Communism Was The Jokes

Sat, 21 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0500

A judge walks out of his chambers laughing his head off. A colleague approaches him and asks why he is laughing. "I just heard the funniest joke in the world!" "Well, go ahead, tell me!" says the other judge. "I can't. I just gave someone ten years for it." With the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the world lost one of humanity's greatest cultural productions: the communist joke. Crossing cultures and borders, the jokes were unique, ubiquitous, and jam-packed with...

MindMatters: Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Fragile things hate chaos, volatility and randomness. The slightest jolt can break them. But what is the opposite of fragility? Not resilience or robustness. Resilient things are neutral to stressors. They take a beating, but remain unchanged. So what likes from disorder? Our languages don't have a word for such a property, or at least they didn't, until Nassim Taleb came around. Antifragile is the property of things that gain from disorder: like muscle, economies, creativity, and character....

MindMatters: Ordinary Men: What Makes Normal People Do Monstrous Things

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Are killers born or made? Depending on who you ask, you'll get a variety of responses: all humans are good - it's only the 'environment' or 'society' that makes them do bad things; anyone who engages in murder must be a cold-blooded psychopath, born to kill. But simple explanations come from simple minds. It's not a matter of either/or. Some people are born that way, like psychopaths. Some have the strength of character to resist the impulse to conform. But most people are somewhere in...

MindMatters: Finding Meaning through Mythological Representations: Delving Further into Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Why have many ancient - and even contemporary stories - just stuck with us and seem etched into the psyche of civilization? What is it about particular narratives that appear to hold something so essential to our existence, and that have become reference points for our own narratives? And how can a story, or a mythology, serve us as we navigate life's many day to day travails, and unexpected twists and turns? Jordan Peterson writes: "A good theory lets you use things — things that once...

MindMatters: The Reality and Implications of an Afterlife

Sat, 23 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500

While materialist scientists and academics dismiss the possibility out of hand, there is not only an extensive amount of research suggesting the validity of reincarnation, near-death out-of-body experiences, and the like - but also much more to the reality of an afterlife than many people assume. Through automatic writing and the use of mediumship there exists a whole body of literature that presents such a world to us. While perhaps impossible to prove the validity of this material, it is...

MindMatters: Meaning in Chaos: Exploring Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning (Chapter 2)

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Dr. Jordan Peterson's 1999 classic Maps of Meaning contains much the raw material for his more recent lectures and writing. While a dense read at times, it's worth the effort. On this episode of MindMatters we take a look at the first sections in Chapter 2, which explore the universals of human experience: the unbearable present, the encounter with chaos, and its transformation into the ideal future. With examples from everyday life and neuropsychology, Peterson shows how we are hardwired to...

MindMatters: Wealth, Violence and Hierarchy in the Roman and Chinese Empires

Sat, 02 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0400

The Roman elite were the original 1%. Status, wealth, power: the good life. Unless they happened to find themselves on a conscription list, in which case they were soon parted from their property, and their lives. The elites of the Chinese dynasties were in a similar position. Constant infighting and jockeying for influence and power allowed for a lot of turnover in the elite class. Families may have reigned for generations only to be wiped out or made paupers. But as long as peace reigned,...

MindMatters: Halloween Special: Oh the Horror! Why Do People Like Getting Scared?

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0400

It's that time of year again: when All Saints's Day, the Day of the Dead, and Halloween come around and our propensity to view or read some horror becomes that much more likely. But why do we indulge in horrific stories year around? Or better put - why do we seem to enjoy horror? What is it about horror, which can be so unpleasant - yet makes people crave a dose of the willies from time to time? Is the viewing or reading of it cathartic? A reminder of something intrinsic to the human...

MindMatters: The Value And Relevance of Joker

Sat, 19 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Amidst much controversy and warning from the 'woke' media, 'concerned citizens' - and even the US military - the movie Joker landed in theaters just a few weeks ago. We were told that the film would empower incels, inspire shootings and have a deleterious effect on the general public - "so don't go!!" In an effort to get to the bottom of all the rancor (and take a break from our computers) we went to go see it for ourselves. And what we realized about the film is that it was not only being...

MindMatters: Self-Help Without The Shallowness: The Hidden Depths of Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0400

It's the book you've heard about for years, but probably never read - especially if you have an aversion to shallow self-help books promising success, influence, power and money. But Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is no shallow self-help book. It's actually a book about virtue - the development of character, and the timeless principles governing true success in life for as long as there has been history. Today on MindMatters we discuss some of the overall themes of...

MindMatters: Decoding the American Minds: The Deep History of America's Culture Wars

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0400

The United States is a big country, but its population is anything but homogenous. For its entire history the people of its various regions have clashed over everything from politics and economics, to religion and cultural norms. But why? Today on MindMatters we discuss Colin Woodard's book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, inspired by the earlier work of David Hackett Fischer. The current cultural landscape of North America traces back to...

MindMatters: Origins of the Power Elite: Inequality and "The 1%"

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400

According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been...

MindMatters: The MacGyver of Hannibal Lecters? The Strange Case of Israel Keyes

Sun, 22 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400

After being taken into police custody, interviewed and studied, FBI profilers called him the most terrifying subject they had ever encountered. With an 'efficiency' and preternatural cunning that was unusual among even the most well known serial killers, Israel Keyes brought this monstrous modus operandi to a whole new level of planning and malevolence. What did Keyes have in common with the well documented cases of psychopaths who murdered people for their own gratification and who came...

MindMatters: America Before: Comets, Catastrophes, Mounds and Mythology

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Around 12,800 years ago, North America suffered a massive cataclysm of cometary bombardment, alternately burning and freezing much of the continent. Not much survived. But what of what came before? In his latest book, Before America, Graham Hancock provides a journalistic account of the latest research into the pre-Columbian history of the Americas - North and South. Hancock catalogues the academic back-and-forths, the controversies and intellectual battles, and the widening acceptance that...

MindMatters: The Meaning of the World's Mythologies

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400

In our previous show on Witzel's book Origins of the World's Mythologies, we learned that the vast majority of world mythologies share the same narrative structure or overall storyline. But what does it mean, and why has it endured for so long, among so many peoples? Today we look at the final chapter of Witzel's book, where he ties it all together, along with our own expansions on his ideas. With reference to psychology (including Jordan Peterson and Kazimierz Dabrowski), generational...

MindMatters: T.C. Lethbridge And The Psi-Science Of The Pendulum

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Do we have access to a 'superconscious' part of our minds - that can become, under certain conditions, and with much observation, more or less conscious, or at the very least, made use of? Are there technologies which can, like a psi-powered geiger counter, help us to find things in our environments - and perhaps even assist us to navigate life - from other levels of awareness? Not content to retire as honorary Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of...

MindMatters: Everything's a Remix: Origins of the World's Mythologies

Sat, 24 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0400

For as long as cultures have had contact with each other, attentive observers have noticed the similarities between their respective myths. Today, scholars hypothesize that these similarities are either the result of accident, cultural sharing or diffusion, or a shared collective unconscious of symbols. But in his revolutionary book, The Origins of the World's Mythologies, E.J. Michael Witzel argues that there's a better reason for many shared features: common origin. Like linguistics or...

MindMatters: Our Favorite Books, Films And Shows So Far This Year

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Your MindMatters hosts can't be hitting the books and reading non-fiction ALL the time! So on this week's show we'll be sharing some of the novels, movies and shows that, in our estimation, are insightful of the human condition, artful enough to be called something like literature - and entertaining enough to add a little joy to our days - and which are certainly worth discussing. And don't worry, we'll be mentioning some of the non-fiction books we've been looking at that satisfy those...

MindMatters: Unstable Reality: When Objects Disappear And Reappear, And What It Means

Sat, 10 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0400

"Just one of those things." Sometimes you just can't find your keys. Sometimes you lose your TV remote. But sometimes, an object might fall from your grasp, never to be seen again. Sometimes objects might disappear from their usual home, only to reappear in the same place days, weeks, or months later - sometimes in a completely unexpected and implausible location. Sometimes a missing object will even be replaced with a poor facsimile. Psychical researcher Mary Rose Barrington calls these...

MindMatters: The Truth About Doublespeak and the Antifa Handbook

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0400

In his dystopian classic 1984, George Orwell introduced the concept of newspeak. Better known today as doublespeak or doubletalk, even those who haven't read the book will probably recognize the phrases "war is peace" or "freedom is slavery". Orwell was inspired by the Soviets' abuse of language in their propaganda, something that leaders and PR firms everywhere engage in, but which was particularly pervasive in USSR and the nations who later adopted the Soviets' socialist model. But there's...

MindMatters: Whole Lotta Crazy: Diagnosing Political Ideologies

Sat, 27 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Today we return to Chapter 5 of Andrew Łobaczewski's groundbreaking work Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes to discern the impact of various ideologies on everyday life, and how dangerous delusions and deviant individuals can warp them into something barely recognizable, culminating in the social system Lobaczewski calls 'pathocracy'. We discuss Lobaczewski's prescient insights concerning how to discern the original contents of the ideology...

MindMatters: How Universities Are Destroying Young Minds With Pathological Thinking

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400

How has it come to be that our universities, societal norms and cultural values have taken a sharp turn down the road of instilling stupidity - instead of intelligence? When we see that the most tried and true (and ancient) approaches to the use of mind and emotions are being relegated to the dung heap, when we notice that many of the most advanced ideas put forth from cognitive behavioral therapy are being ignored - and indeed, inverted - what are we to make of this? On this week's...

MindMatters: Words As Weapons: The Postmodern Political Strategy

Sat, 13 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Groucho Marx defined politics as "The art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." One could hardly come up with a better definition of postmodern politics. On today's show we discuss the psychological roots of this postmodern mayhem, which is manifesting in radical racial/gender politics in classrooms and universities, Antifa mobs on the streets, and mass censorship in Silicon Valley. Running Time: 01:06:46 Download: MP3 —...

MindMatters: "Everybody Knows That!" - Mass Beliefs and the Ideas That Shape Them

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400

If you're human, then chances are you believe something that "everybody knows" to be true. And if you're a thinking human, then chances are you know that such beliefs can turn out to be not so true after all. Everybody knew saturated fat is bad for you, after all. But now they don't and the opposite is true. Fancy that! Whether it's beliefs, emotions, or behaviors, social contagion is a real thing, and it's the shared nature of these phenomena that hold communities together in one relatively...

MindMatters: The Nature of Reality: Mindless Matter, or Universal Consciousness?

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400

What is the nature of reality, and why does it matter? Whether we know it or not, we all have a worldview - a set of very core beliefs and assumptions about the way the world works and our place within it. Sometimes those assumptions work, sometimes they don't, but as long as they are left unexamined, we can't say we've come any closer to actually understanding who we are and what we're doing. That's the great gift that philosophy can give us: a roadmap for meaning. That doesn't mean it's...

MindMatters: Do You Believe In God? Jordan Peterson on Consciousness and Faith

Sat, 22 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400

"Do you believe in God?" It's the mother of all loaded questions. What does the questioner really want to know? That you're part of their tribe? Whether or not you're a superstitious simpleton? What do they mean by belief? What do they mean by God? It's not a simple question, and the answer is never so simple as yes or no. In his recently published talk, "Who Dares Say He Believes in God?", Jordan Peterson gives his reasons for not liking the question. But he goes deeper into the question...

MindMatters: The Triumph of Irrationalism and the Death of Metaphysics

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Between hysteria, censorship, endless war and climate catastrophe it seems the world has fallen victim to chaos and irrationality. On today's show we take a hard look at the origins of this madness and what to do about it, utilizing a work by one of our favorite philosophers, R.G. Collingwood. Collingwood, an English philosopher, archaeologist and historian, passed away in 1943. But just three years before he passed he published An Essay on Metaphysics and left the world a rigorous defense...

MindMatters: How Responding to Evil Can Unite Humanity

Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400

What is the fate of the average individual when psychopaths openly govern a country and pathological individuals occupy every office of importance across society? Join us today as we seek answers to these questions and continue our conversation on Chapter 5 of Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology. In previous shows we discussed how schizoid individuals create grand ideologies, character-disturbed people weaponize them and turn them into a mass movement, and how psychopaths infiltrate...

MindMatters: Transformation or Degradation? The Many Faces of Suffering

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400

It appears that every sentient creature experiences pain in one form or another, serving as it does to provide an immediate signal to potentially life-threatening events. As humans we may experience qualitatively different dimensions of pain, from physical illness all the way to moral and spiritual anguish. However, in modern society, whether it's seen as an injustice imposed by the 'elite' or the 'patriarchy', or as the deficiency of one drug or another, all forms of suffering are heaped...

MindMatters: Capitalism and Christianity: Demonic Forces, or Not As Bad As You Think?

Sat, 25 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Is money evil? Is profit theft? Is poverty the only way to be holy? Then if so, some of the first Western capitalists - Cistercian monks running extensive factories - didn't get the memo. Today on MindMatters we delve a bit deeper into Rodney Stark's book, Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, specifically his take on the rise of capitalism. Running Time: 01:11:22 Download: MP3 - 65.4 MB

MindMatters: Forgotten Ideals: Christianity and the Foundation of Western Civilization

Sat, 18 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone is by now well aware, whether through personal experience or vicariously via the news, of the toxic legacy of Christian fundamentalism. Whether it's authoritarian dogma or the many scandals that have plagued the Catholic church, many so-called 'Christians' have given plenty of ammo to their accusers. Meanwhile individuals are largely left to fend for themselves in a society that was founded on Christianity but that is overwhelmingly nihilistic and materialistic, denying its own...

MindMatters: How Psychopaths Infect and Destroy Hierarchies of Competence

Sat, 11 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Can a government of, by and for psychopaths exist when the vast majority of individuals governed by such a group can be said to be relatively normal? Psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski believed that it could, outlined the factors that allow for its functioning, and coined a term for such a social structure: a pathocracy. On this week's show we will be delving deeper into the workings of pathological groupings - groupings that wield enormous amounts of power both overtly, and covertly, and over...

MindMatters: What Is A Pathocracy?

Sat, 04 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Most people have a very common sense understanding of politics and various forms of government. Aristotle divided governments into three distinct forms: the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the polity (similar to modern notions of the republic), and revealed what they looked like when they were corrupted: the tyranny, the oligarchy (or in more modern terms, the technocracy), and democracy, respectively. However, over the course of the early 20th century there appeared qualitatively different...

MindMatters: The Great Peterson Vs. Žižek Debate: Ideological Slugfest or Meeting of the Minds?

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0400

What happens when two of the biggest and best known minds in the Western world decide to come together under one roof and publicly debate one of the most contentious and divisive of all political ideological issues - Capitalism Vs. Communism - and which one confers happiness to the greatest number of people? Well that's exactly what Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Žižek did recently much to the delight, disgust or confusion of many thousands. How would Žižek defend Communism? How would Peterson...

MindMatters: Suffering To Be Happy: The Fool's Paradise of Feeling Good

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Today's Western cultural landscape seems to give us all the wrong messages of what happiness is, and how one should go about attaining it; we're programmed for unhappiness and seemingly trapped in ways of thinking and being that only make for more unhappiness! On this week's MindMatters we discuss John F. Schumaker's book In Search of Happiness - Understanding An Endangered State of Mind and delve into what happiness actually is, what it isn't - and some of the perennial values which nurture...

MindMatters: Fragments of the Divine: Analyzing Jordan Peterson's Conception of the Soul

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0400

In Jordan Peterson's latest YouTube Q&A, a subscriber asks about the nature of the soul. Peterson's answer touches on the nature of consciousness, ethics, responsibility, character, theology, and what it all might mean metaphysically. In short, many of our favorite topics here on MindMatters! So join us as we dive into Peterson's ideas on the soul, their applications to everyday life, and the implications for what they might say about the nature of the universe, and our place within it....

MindMatters: Matter, Information, or Mind - Which Is The Most Fundamental?

Sat, 06 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0400

On today's show we discuss the research of computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup, a man who has devoted a significant amount of his professional life to developing a robust and comprehensive critique of the materialist worldview. He is the author of numerous books, including The Idea of the World: A multi-disciplinary argument for the mental nature of reality, and Why Materialism is Baloney, as well as many articles. Today we'll be discussing one of his latest articles, "Physics Is Pointing...

MindMatters: New Show! Why Mind Really Matters, and Your Life Reflects Your Values

Sat, 30 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0400

On this first episode of MindMatters, we dive into the biggest mystery of our times: consciousness. What is it, why is it so mysterious, and why is it important? Materialists either explain it away or deny it really exists, but the mind is much more than that. It can't be so easily denied. Everything in our experience, from our sensations and feelings to our theories and choices in life - all of these depend on our minds. Summing up many of the topics we have looked at on our previous show,...