Siddharth Ramakrishnan, PhD – The Neuroscience of Magic

WEBVTT
1
00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:09.080
My name is Victor Furman. Some call me the Voice.
2
00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:15.160
I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and
3
00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:18.760
the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
4
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:22.399
we will explore these topics and so much more with
5
00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:27.239
fascinating guests, authors and experts who will guide us to
6
00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:38.759
Destination Unlimited. What happens to your brain when you practice magic?
7
00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:44.320
My guest this week on Destination Unlimited, Doctor Zidharth Ramakrishnan,
8
00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:50.000
reveals how your mind is wired for intentions, spells, and dreams.
9
00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:55.679
Using straightforward language and full color brain maps. He translates
10
00:00:55.719 --> 00:01:00.240
the complex science behind the brain circuitry and reveals how
11
00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:06.040
practicing magic alters these circuits, literally rewiring the brain. In
12
00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:10.079
his new book, The Neuroscience of Magic, How Your Brain
13
00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:15.000
Is Wired for Intentions, spells, and Dreams, readers discover how
14
00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:19.120
their minds are inherently built from magical thinking, and how
15
00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:25.040
that wiring can be intentionally harnessed. Through dozens of practical exercises,
16
00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:29.719
readers learn to amplify the power of their words, intentions,
17
00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:36.359
and beliefs to manifest results. Doctor Ramakrishnan is a neuroscientist, artist,
18
00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:41.640
and educator. He chairs the Neuroscience Department at the University
19
00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.959
of Puget Sound and is a recipient of the National
20
00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.760
Science Foundation Career Award. He is also offer of the
21
00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.040
Neuroscience of Taro and creator of the Neurotarot Deck. His
22
00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:58.959
website is Brainmistic dot com and he joins me this
23
00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:03.120
week to share his new book and amazing work. Please
24
00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.200
join me in welcoming to Destination Unlimited, doctor said hearth
25
00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:08.080
Rama Krishnan.
26
00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:11.639
Welcome Sidharth, thank you, thank you for the invite and
27
00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:13.080
I'm really excited to be joining you.
28
00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.400
Thank you. Please share with us your early path and
29
00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:21.919
any experiences you had that opened you to the possibilities
30
00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:22.879
of magic.
31
00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.199
I grew up in India and I grew up in
32
00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:32.039
a family of surgeons. But at home we were constantly
33
00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:38.439
casting horoscopes and using that divination of different kinds. But
34
00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.240
aside from that, I also was a kind of a
35
00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:46.960
kid who used to have premonitions of many of people dying,
36
00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:50.280
and to the point where around when I was six
37
00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.360
or seven, my grandmother pulled me to the side and
38
00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:55.840
kind of taught me a way to shut my psychic
39
00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:00.159
abilities down, not because she was upset by it, but
40
00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.960
more because she realized how much it was debilitating my
41
00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:08.439
own life almost And I always also used to connect
42
00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:14.360
the dots between very different kinds of incidents, like, for example,
43
00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:19.520
I hit a kid in school, and then when I
44
00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:22.199
came back home, my aunt had passed, and I kind
45
00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:26.840
of connected those things together. And that's a quintessential belief
46
00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:31.319
in magic, that there's things that are not really logically connected,
47
00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:35.479
you kind of form those connections. And it kind of
48
00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:39.719
set the tone for me to believe in magic in
49
00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:40.439
a certain way.
50
00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:43.759
So this was something that was actually a tradition in
51
00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:44.360
your family.
52
00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.479
Yeah, I mean I don't think in at least growing
53
00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:55.159
up in a household where we would use divination as
54
00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:58.800
a regular practice, even though we believed in science, it
55
00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:03.240
wasn't uncor And I also went to a school which
56
00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.879
was a looking back, which is a very different kind
57
00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.039
of school because there was an Anglo Bathic school in
58
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:11.280
the sense that used to perform fire rituals every Saturday
59
00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:17.839
and invoke the elements and chant chant and chant mantras
60
00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:22.800
and hymns to pray to fire, a wind and water.
61
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:28.160
And so this is all part of almost a part
62
00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:31.040
of what is it called us a moral education, but
63
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:34.839
a lot of it was spells and creating sacred spaces.
64
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000
Wonderful. I think that's actually a wonderful way to grow up.
65
00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:42.319
It is looking back. I mean when I was growing up,
66
00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:45.399
I didn't think I thought everybody kind of experienced it.
67
00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:48.120
But then now looking back, is when I realized that
68
00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:51.560
it was a very special form of education because it
69
00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:54.879
wasn't really organized religion in the sense, so there wasn't
70
00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:59.800
a lot of issues about you have to believe this,
71
00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:05.560
but rather a lot of exploring an inquiry based like
72
00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:10.680
why what would happen when you invoke a fire? And
73
00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:14.480
so there's a lot of questions about learning some tools
74
00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.160
of rituals, but then using that as a point for
75
00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:19.360
inquiry was something that was encouraged.
76
00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:23.639
I think now your academic pursuits led to your studies
77
00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:27.279
in neuroscience and biology. What were your thoughts as a
78
00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:32.079
burgeoning scientist and educator about manifestations that were not regarded
79
00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.360
by most in the field as scientific.
80
00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:41.240
Yeah, it's funny is scientists on one level, we have
81
00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:44.519
to remember that scientists are also human, and so even
82
00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:51.079
though they practice the scientific method of exploring the world
83
00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:57.879
as their main ethos, they also live lives and I
84
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.680
think behind the scenes. A lot of scientists also believe
85
00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:08.079
in other things. For example, big discoveries are followed up
86
00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:12.959
on hunches and you know, intuition, and so there is
87
00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:17.240
something where scientists are saying, oh, I think there's something there,
88
00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:19.959
let me explore it further. So for that they are
89
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.560
relying on unconscious pattern matching where and exploring the world
90
00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:28.720
with that. And of course the way they're exploring it
91
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:32.720
is by using the scientific method and you know, doing
92
00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:37.720
experiments to investigate it. But when you're talking about groundbreaking
93
00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:44.480
discoveries that leap leap, like you know, regular movements, or
94
00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.560
it probably needs a little bit of magic involved. And
95
00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:53.079
I've also been in a multiple scientific labs where there
96
00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:55.920
are these protocols where you'll be like, you know, you
97
00:06:55.959 --> 00:06:58.439
almost say a prayer before you do an experiment in
98
00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:01.319
order for you the hope that it'll work, or you
99
00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:03.519
work on a particular day like I used to work
100
00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.399
in a lab where you had to work on Christmas
101
00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:08.480
Day because that day was magical and everything would work
102
00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:13.959
and all the experiments will give data. So maybe it's superstition,
103
00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:19.879
but there's also you're trying to increase the chances of success.
104
00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:22.519
So and I think that's also something that you know
105
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:25.600
you've been you're manifesting something that that's something that people do.
106
00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.480
So yeah, scientists also practice that absolutely.
107
00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.040
So you're a working neuroscientist who chairs your department at
108
00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:37.519
the University of Puget Sound and holds a National Science
109
00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:42.680
Foundation Career Award. What pulled a scientist like you into
110
00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:43.800
the subject?
111
00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:52.120
I started in neuroscience around two thousand and that's also
112
00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.240
when I got my first deck of tarot cards. And
113
00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:58.639
I've been doing divination for myself and for a few
114
00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:03.319
friends since then. So and I've always been curious about
115
00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:09.240
what allows us to kind of jump into those intuitive
116
00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:14.120
leaps of faith. And then I was thinking also about
117
00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:19.439
also about how, especially at home growing up, we used
118
00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:22.439
to have a lot of rituals. As a Hindu, you
119
00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:26.160
grew up with a lot of rituals, but the rituals
120
00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:30.360
would happen in our home space. So one night we'll
121
00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:32.919
be eating food on the dining table, and the next
122
00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:36.080
day the whole thing would be cleared and there will
123
00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:39.879
be an altar for a god, and the god would
124
00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:44.799
be a coconut which is now garlanded and has some
125
00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:48.200
tumeric and kunkumum on it and then we would pray
126
00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:53.639
to it. And I've always wondered about how we reframe
127
00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:58.559
our brains into considering something to be sacred or not sacred.
128
00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:01.639
And as a newest scientists, that was just fascinating to
129
00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.000
me because it is that tool, the same tool will
130
00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.559
be using to look at the world around us that
131
00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:10.960
we're using to then think of objects around us as
132
00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.240
being powerful or supernatural entities, and all of us say,
133
00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:18.039
the universe made me do it? And where does the
134
00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:21.080
thought arise from? So as a neuroscientist, it's like if
135
00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:24.080
the brain is the instrument, it's like amazing to just
136
00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:24.759
explore that.
137
00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.799
H We're going to be discussing your new book, The
138
00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:32.960
Neuroscience of Magic, but first let's discuss your previous book.
139
00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.279
You talked about Taro. The Neuroscience of Taro from imagery
140
00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:41.639
to intuition to prediction, what happens inside the brain when
141
00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:42.799
you look at a tarot card.
142
00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.159
So in that book I did I did not talk
143
00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:56.399
about psychic abilities where people channel divination from say, extra
144
00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:59.799
sensory perception from outside, but rather I wanted to look
145
00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.000
at what happens scientifically when you look at a tarot card.
146
00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:08.000
Because if you look at it. It's an image and
147
00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:11.399
it's just a bunch of quigly lines, But somehow you're
148
00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:14.840
able to look at it and form a narrative and
149
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:20.120
then from there make those intuitive leaps from that narrative.
150
00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.879
So that's kind of what the book dives into. So
151
00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:27.399
how does your brain process an image and then from
152
00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:31.639
there make connections and stories and metaphors from it. And
153
00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:36.320
then from there, once you have that story, you're then
154
00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:40.120
using that to make an intuitive prediction, saying, oh, this
155
00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:43.480
is what you're experiencing or this is what you will
156
00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.720
be doing next. So where does that intuition come from?
157
00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.879
And also in a lot of Tarot readings, this is
158
00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.639
this part of it I really enjoy is there are
159
00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:56.120
two people involved, the person who's doing the reading and
160
00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:58.440
the other person who's asking the question. So that's a
161
00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:02.600
whole piece of social cost network and we're using as humans,
162
00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:06.200
we have social creatures and we've evolved to judge people
163
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:09.480
all the time, and we're using that in that Taro reading.
164
00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:14.039
So I dive into that a little bit. And also
165
00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.720
there's a new field of neuroscience called neuro forecasting, where
166
00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:24.679
they're actually able to predict using people's brain scans events
167
00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:27.399
that will happen six months down the line or a
168
00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:31.559
year from now. So I kind of use that aspect
169
00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:34.240
of the predictive brain also to think about how we're
170
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:36.000
using that in taro readings.
171
00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.120
Can you give us an example that's the first time
172
00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:39.840
I'm hearing of this. Can you give us an example
173
00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:41.399
of that, please? Yeah.
174
00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.279
So there's a group and Stanford. I forget exactly the name,
175
00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.799
but the reference is there in the books. But they
176
00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:50.600
are looking at so if they put an egy helmet
177
00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.639
on people to record brain signals, it's electrons flograms, and
178
00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:57.879
they will ask them, okay, which song is going to
179
00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:00.759
be the most popular six months down the line. And
180
00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:04.279
even if in their conscious answer they are going to
181
00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:07.000
say song A is going to be the most popular,
182
00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.120
if you look at their brain scans, it might actually
183
00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:14.919
be pointing towards song D or song C. And collectively,
184
00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:19.039
if you take brain scans or say one hundred people, collectively,
185
00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:23.120
their brains are all going to be pointing towards song C.
186
00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.080
And then they went ahead and checked out six months
187
00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:29.519
down the line, Yes, indeed song C was the most popular.
188
00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:33.000
And so it's almost like we have these value judgment
189
00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:37.480
areas in your brain and called the nucleus accumbents for
190
00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.000
positive values. So things that are going to be exciting,
191
00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:44.000
but it's you don't consciously know it. Unconsciously your brain
192
00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:46.919
is already saying, oh, that there's something really interesting about that.
193
00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:50.440
So the nucleus accumbents is going to go spark into
194
00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:53.720
a spark with activity. And for things that are you
195
00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:56.200
won't avoid or like saying oh no, no, that that
196
00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.679
thing is really not that product is not going to
197
00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:01.799
be great you're in, or is kind of going to
198
00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.200
activate at that point. So kind of balancing these two,
199
00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:08.120
your brain is predicting what's going to turn up or down.
200
00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:11.360
I wonder if there are any groups out there who
201
00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:13.360
are predicting the stock market six months.
202
00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.919
Yes, they're definitely. Yeah, that's that's kind of that's what's funding,
203
00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.080
funding funding a lot of this stuff.
204
00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.480
Yes, wow, Wow, that's amazing. Please tell us about your
205
00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:24.039
neuro tarot deck.
206
00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:29.320
Uh, the new Tarto deck. I used to paint a
207
00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:33.720
lot when I was a kid, and I kind of
208
00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:36.919
as I went through my scientific career, I lost touch
209
00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.240
of it, and so I want to get back into
210
00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:43.759
that practice of daily rituals are painting, and I was
211
00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:47.840
wondering what concept I need I could work on and constanting.
212
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.360
I was also working on Taro a lot. I was thinking, oh,
213
00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.320
let me, let me do a deck for this, and
214
00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:56.399
then I started finding out a lot of correspondences between
215
00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:01.399
the taro themes and you know science. So for example,
216
00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:04.720
the fool card, the first card in the tarot deck,
217
00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:08.799
it talks a lot about the beginning of a journey
218
00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:12.320
and so much potential and you can be anything, and
219
00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:15.559
the naivety, and then I was thinking that corresponds to
220
00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.000
almost like a newborn neuron, which has the potential to
221
00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:23.000
go anywhere and be any kind of neuron it wants
222
00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.879
to be, and there's so much potential to it. So
223
00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:31.600
the whole major Arkhana themes were inspired me to then
224
00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:35.279
find the neuroscience correspondences to them, and so then I
225
00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:38.519
hand drew all of them and wrote the neuro and
226
00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:41.120
the tarot meaning for each card and you can use
227
00:14:41.159 --> 00:14:44.080
it as a neuroscience deck or a tarot deck, and yeah,
228
00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:45.159
it's it's a lot of.
229
00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:47.600
Fun and where can people get that deck right now?
230
00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:48.559
And also your book.
231
00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:53.639
So my website is Brain Mystic B R A I
232
00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:57.240
N M. Y S t I Z Brain mystic dot com.
233
00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.039
You can purchase the Tarot Decks over there, and there
234
00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.320
are also links to get the book either from Amazon
235
00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:08.879
or level In directly or bookshop on my website.
236
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.799
Congratulations on your new upcoming book, The Neuroscience of Magic.
237
00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.600
Your central claim is that our brains are wired for
238
00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:22.360
magical thinking. First, how do you define magical thinking?
239
00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:31.960
Magical thinking is when you connect almost two disparate events
240
00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:36.120
together which may not have any logical explanation behind them,
241
00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:40.600
but then you connect them together in order to think, oh,
242
00:15:40.679 --> 00:15:45.240
this AA cost B. Even though in the scientific world,
243
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:47.559
or in any regular world there's a logical world, there
244
00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:50.080
could be no connection between A and B. And that's
245
00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:55.639
kind of what magical thinking is. And we yeah, that's
246
00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:56.919
kind of what magical thinking is.
247
00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.600
What does that mean neurologically, not metaphorically, but in terms
248
00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:04.639
of the actual circuitry of the brain.
249
00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:10.440
Yeah, so we all have this ability to think magically.
250
00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:13.639
So if you look back on when you're a child,
251
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:21.759
those kinds of connections between things that don't logically seem possible,
252
00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:26.279
it just seems much more appropriate when you're when you're
253
00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:30.120
when you're a kid, And uh, and that's why we
254
00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:32.440
we you know, kids, they might say, or like I,
255
00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:34.960
when I was a kid, I used to I had
256
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.080
pet ladybirds, and I used to when they died, I
257
00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:41.120
buried them in the sand, and I used to eat
258
00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.600
some of the sand, saying that, Oh, that's going to
259
00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:48.440
help them with their afterlife. And what what they What
260
00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:52.080
scientists have found is that kids from a very young
261
00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:56.879
age tend to have formed those connections between fine connections
262
00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:01.360
across things that are not really connected, but then also
263
00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:05.079
tend to believe in things like, oh, if I say
264
00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:07.880
I'm talking to the dead, they'll be like, oh, okay,
265
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:12.279
that's possible. The possibility just seems so endless. And over time,
266
00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:16.119
our social upbringing and the fact that we live in
267
00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:18.799
a society and we need to live by the norms
268
00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:23.119
of society, we kind of tone that those connections down,
269
00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:27.839
and so our disbelief center is kind of kind of
270
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.839
crank up. So there's a part of the brain called
271
00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:33.799
the antio singular cortex. So if you want to think
272
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:36.279
about it, if you place the palm of your hand
273
00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:40.359
along the curvature of your skull and gently sync it
274
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:42.759
down a little bit towards the middle of your brain.
275
00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:47.240
That would be your anti singular cortex, and that is
276
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:52.720
your the center that kind of wants you to connect
277
00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:56.680
things logically and in order to produce the integrate information
278
00:17:56.839 --> 00:17:59.920
to produce a belief of some kind. So you can
279
00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:03.519
have to suspend that center a little bit in order
280
00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.400
for you to allow you to believe in things that
281
00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.799
could be magical. The other part of the area that
282
00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:15.200
really gets activated is called the temporal parietal junction. That
283
00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:17.720
one is if you put your hands along the tips
284
00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:20.359
of your ears and slightly go up a little bit,
285
00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:24.759
that area right above your temples, that is the temporal
286
00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:29.920
paratle junction. It connects. It's the junction between your temporal
287
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.440
or memory centers and your parietal or your space centers.
288
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:39.759
And you use this to attribute agency to people around you.
289
00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:42.359
So the fact that I'm talking to you right now,
290
00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:45.039
it means that I'm I know that you have You're
291
00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:48.440
capable of thoughts, you're capable of actions. So this is
292
00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:50.519
called your theory of mind. The fact that I can
293
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:54.079
attribute thoughts and actions to other people. And we use
294
00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:58.400
the same area of the brain to attribute agency to
295
00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:04.319
the universe, to fire, to gods, to the supernatural. So
296
00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.559
the fact that we are humans of social creatures and
297
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.960
have the social ability to attribute agency to other people
298
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:15.160
is also the same thing we're using to attribute agency
299
00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.839
to the supernatural. So those are two main elements that
300
00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.400
I would say are really important and magical thinking.
301
00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:23.279
You know, it's really interesting. When I was a child,
302
00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:26.440
I used to come up with things and my parents
303
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:30.480
would tell me I had an over active imagination, and
304
00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:33.279
then some of these things would manifest, and I've experienced
305
00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.319
that throughout my life. In nineteen seventy five, I was
306
00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:38.839
in the United States Air Force. I was stationed in Korea,
307
00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:41.559
and I would write back and forth with my mother
308
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:44.119
in New York every month, and I had no indication
309
00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:47.480
that anything was wrong. And then one morning I got
310
00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:50.480
the message in my head, Mom needs to hear from you.
311
00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:53.720
There's something wrong. And whenever I heard that voice, I
312
00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:56.680
would always respond in kind, and I called back to
313
00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:59.720
New York. And in those days, we had extension telephones
314
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.799
extension telephones, and my mother and my sister answered the
315
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:08.839
phone simultaneously, and I said, Mom, is there anything wrong?
316
00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.519
And my sister goes, oh, my god, how did he
317
00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:14.400
find out? And it turns out she was scheduled for
318
00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:17.480
major surgery the next day, and the voice told me
319
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:19.920
to tell her the operation would be a complete success,
320
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:23.359
she'd have a rapid recovery, everything would be just fine.
321
00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:26.759
She needed to hear those words, and that's exactly what transpired.
322
00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:30.119
Wow, that's that's really amazing.
323
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:31.759
And I'm grateful for it. I don't I've never you know,
324
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:33.759
I've had these things throughout my life. I don't put
325
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.039
myself out as a psychic or anything of that nature,
326
00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:38.720
but I do. I'm grateful for that ability to pick
327
00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:39.599
up on that information.
328
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:43.920
As a scientist, I believe this is this kind of
329
00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.839
access to information is available for us, but we don't
330
00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:51.200
know how yet. We don't yet know how or where
331
00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:54.480
this comes from. And the problem I think is we
332
00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:59.079
don't have the tools to measure or or measure some
333
00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:01.720
of these things. And I don't think the question of
334
00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:06.079
things that these events for episodes don't happens because we
335
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.839
just don't have physically the tools to actually measure how
336
00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:10.000
how these things are happening.
337
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:12.480
You know, It's funny. I've been reading a lot about entanglement,
338
00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:19.119
about quantum entanglement, and wondering if perhaps someone thinking something, uh,
339
00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:22.119
and the thought is energy and that the energy is transferred.
340
00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:23.880
That that's how that takes place.
341
00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:28.200
That's probably how it's happening. And if you consider if
342
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:30.640
you go along the quantum theory, and if you consider
343
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:34.799
all of us as being waveforms, but except when we
344
00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:38.960
have physical bodies, we're just more condensed wave forms, then
345
00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:44.440
that's part of that too. They in in Indian yoga theory,
346
00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:48.240
there's a there's a whole concept of five different planes
347
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.680
of consciousness, and that we are mainly living in the
348
00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:55.839
physical plane and in the mental plane, but beyond that
349
00:21:56.079 --> 00:22:00.559
is the is the so that's called the and then
350
00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:03.279
beyond the physical and mental planes is the plane of
351
00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.319
universal consciousness, where you can tap into energies and thoughts
352
00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:13.119
and ideas which are kind of flowing along in the
353
00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:18.039
stream above the mental plane. And a lot of meditative
354
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:22.160
techniques and practices and mantras and hymns are supposed to
355
00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.279
help us transcend into that universal plane in order to
356
00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:30.039
get access to those information. So a lot of Yogi
357
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:32.559
theory is kind of trying to tap into that.
358
00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:37.319
My guest is doctor sidhart Rabmakrishnan. We're talking about his
359
00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.039
new book The Neuroscience of Magic, How your brain is
360
00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:45.440
wired for Intentions, spells and dreams. Sid Darth, please share
361
00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:47.240
with our listeners where they can get your books and
362
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:48.319
find that all about you.
363
00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:54.279
Thank you. My website is brain myistic dot com, b
364
00:22:54.599 --> 00:22:56.920
R A I N M, Y S T I C
365
00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:01.720
dot com and you can find about my books and
366
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:06.079
my taro deck on that website. And you can reach
367
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:11.599
me on Instagram at sidbits siddbs and I'll be happy
368
00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:13.839
to chat with you on that if you have more
369
00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:14.720
questions about that.
370
00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:17.720
And we'll be back with more after these words. On
371
00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:19.799
the own Times Radio.
372
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:25.039
Network, the cutting Edge of conscious Radio. Home Times Radio IOMFM.
373
00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:29.200
Ome Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
374
00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:34.519
providers of positivity, wellness and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
375
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:38.680
their net proceeds are final to support worldwide charity initiatives
376
00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:43.039
via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community
377
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:46.880
and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
378
00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:51.519
a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle.
379
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.920
Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week, doctor Sidharth
380
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.920
Brahma Krishna. We're talking about his new book, The Neuroscience
381
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:05.279
of Magic, How Your Brain Is Wired for intentions, spells,
382
00:24:05.319 --> 00:24:10.640
and dreams. So DA you argue that practicing magic literally
383
00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:15.960
rewires the brain, please walk us through what neuroplasticity is
384
00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:20.200
really doing when someone repeats an intention or casts a
385
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:21.839
spell over time.
386
00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:28.640
Yeah, with with intentions, you you really need to assess
387
00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:31.680
the value of the intention, and especially when you're trying
388
00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:35.279
to manifest something, how much does it matter to you?
389
00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:37.680
And I think that that's one thing that the brain
390
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.559
is really looking forward to, and that's a two way
391
00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:43.640
street between the brain and the body. When you are
392
00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:47.680
when you add when you're you know, you tell something,
393
00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:50.079
oh I'm really I really want this car, or I
394
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:54.720
really want this thing to happen, you are activating part
395
00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:58.279
of your value centers. So that's going to be releasing dopamine,
396
00:24:58.279 --> 00:25:00.359
which is going to make you excited about about it,
397
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:04.559
but it's also going to alter say if your heart
398
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:08.000
gets to relieve, her heart beat is increased, to get
399
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:10.519
excited about, oh how am I going to feel when
400
00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:13.920
I get this particular car, and then that is then
401
00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:17.920
going to talk back to the brain and saying, you know, oh,
402
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:20.920
my heart breed beat is increasing, So this thing is
403
00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:24.000
going to value much more to me and that's going
404
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:26.960
to help you make the action for it. So it's
405
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:31.519
almost like trying to tell your brain that something matters
406
00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:34.680
so much for you that you're actually going to take
407
00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:38.160
action for it, so you start planning those actions. So
408
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:40.480
this is before you press the button to buy the car.
409
00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:42.920
It's like all the other stuff that's going to happen
410
00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:47.680
before then, before that's happening. And so that's one aspect
411
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:50.599
of things. The other aspect is, especially when we are
412
00:25:50.680 --> 00:25:58.559
saying drawing sigils or creating sacred boundaries or even doing
413
00:25:58.599 --> 00:26:05.119
spell work, we are if we start creating a ritual
414
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:09.640
around it where we are using physical movements to say,
415
00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:14.319
either make make the boundary again and again two or
416
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:18.559
three times. Or if you're drawing a particular piece of
417
00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:23.720
sigil and you're using your hands to do that elaborate drawing,
418
00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:29.200
and when you're again using those motor areas of your brain,
419
00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:35.119
you are telling your value centers and belief centers that
420
00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:38.559
this something and this is something that's important even though
421
00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:43.160
there's no logical explanation to it. So when you start
422
00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.440
doing that, your brain says, oh, you know what, I'm
423
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:51.440
going to pay attention to this because it's actually something
424
00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:55.079
that I am working on. This movement of my hands
425
00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:59.920
is something that I'm actually devoting time to and there
426
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:03.119
for there must be something important about it, some important
427
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:06.079
about the thought behind it, and so I'm going to
428
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:10.000
pay more attention to it and devote more energy towards
429
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.519
that particular thing. So these are two examples of how
430
00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:19.680
the brain is rewiring as we're practicing those intention settings
431
00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:24.279
or sigil making and things like that, which is literally
432
00:27:24.359 --> 00:27:28.519
changing your circuits as we are going along magical processes.
433
00:27:28.519 --> 00:27:31.640
Taking it into the physical realm. Over the last twenty
434
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:34.559
years or so, there's been this thing about what they
435
00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:39.039
call the secret or manifestation, creating an intention and then
436
00:27:39.079 --> 00:27:42.039
actually manifesting it in the physical world. Is that what
437
00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:43.039
we're talking about.
438
00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:48.039
Here in a way? In a way, but I would
439
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:53.960
probably say before we manifestation can be something where people say, oh,
440
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.799
you know, think about it and poor. But then what
441
00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:00.799
I would suggest is when you are setting those intentions
442
00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:04.480
to embody it a little bit more feel it in
443
00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:09.920
your body as to how you will react when something happens,
444
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:14.000
and that way the brain is going to then understand
445
00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:18.240
what the emotion would be. So one thing I found
446
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:21.599
in my research is that For a long time, neuroscientists
447
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:24.119
thought that the brain is telling the body what an
448
00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:27.839
emotion is. So the idea is if I feel happy,
449
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:32.119
I'm going to feel light hearted, and my stomach and
450
00:28:32.200 --> 00:28:35.720
everything is going to be ease and ease and love
451
00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:39.039
great in my body. But now scientists have found it
452
00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:41.319
it's going to be the other way around. Is when
453
00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:46.279
your body is your body is feeling things physiologically, which
454
00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:49.960
the brain then labels as feeling happy or sad or
455
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.640
anxious and so on. So if you physically embody how
456
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:57.440
you will feel when you have success or when you
457
00:28:57.559 --> 00:29:00.880
have a particular thing in your hand, and then the
458
00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:03.920
brain is going to understand, hey, you know what, if
459
00:29:03.960 --> 00:29:07.359
this happens my I'm going to have butterflies in my
460
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:10.160
stomach and my heart is going to be raising, which
461
00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:13.559
means that I'm going to be in this feeling of excitement.
462
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:17.039
So you need to kind of help to break your
463
00:29:17.079 --> 00:29:20.880
brain to understand how your body will be behaving. So
464
00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:24.799
that is one thing I think is is people don't
465
00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:29.839
kind of get into that zone of physical manifestation of
466
00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:34.200
how they would be in a particular area. The other
467
00:29:34.279 --> 00:29:39.759
thing is we need to also remove some of the
468
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.839
uh disbelief. So one thing is if I say, oh,
469
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.039
I really want a car, and then I say and
470
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:50.920
then the next minute, if I start thinking about something else,
471
00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:53.559
then the brain is not going to play pay as
472
00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:55.759
much important because they're going to say it's gonna It's
473
00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:59.079
always prioritizing what is what is the next task? What
474
00:29:59.119 --> 00:30:02.799
am I supposed to do? So if you start off
475
00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:05.519
on one thing and then move off into a different tangent,
476
00:30:06.119 --> 00:30:09.480
then I think you lose focus a little bit. And
477
00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:12.240
for that, I think is where we need to kind
478
00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:15.119
of put it into maybe a ritual or put it
479
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:19.640
into maybe a much more focused way of looking at
480
00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:23.200
a particular intention so that the brain again adds value
481
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:27.039
to it. So I think it's well and good for
482
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:30.240
you to say I'm going to be great and that's
483
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:33.319
what I have the power of. But then sometimes we
484
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.279
forget that we need to actually take action in order
485
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:38.240
for us to manifest some of these goals.
486
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.119
Absolutely, And the other thing I actually teach you a
487
00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:42.960
little bit about this. One of the things that I
488
00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:45.640
teach my students is you have to have that immediate
489
00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:49.039
sense of gratitude as if the thing has already transpired
490
00:30:49.079 --> 00:30:49.319
for you.
491
00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:53.599
Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing I've learned through this
492
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:58.680
process of research is self affirmation, which is part of
493
00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:03.240
a lot of manifestations, is does not work for everybody.
494
00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:08.119
And there's a whole branch of therapy that's involved in
495
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:10.920
talking about how self affirmation might not work for everyone,
496
00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:15.000
and they need to resort to a different means called
497
00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:19.079
cognitive diffusion, where they have to refer to themselves maybe
498
00:31:19.079 --> 00:31:22.759
in third person or second person, or write notes to
499
00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:29.519
the divine universe saying I'm putting this out there and
500
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:32.400
I want to get it, as opposed to saying I
501
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:35.559
will succeed or I will do this. That might not
502
00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:38.119
work for them. They might have to resort to different strategies.
503
00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:45.680
Absolutely, the neuroscience of magic includes full color brain maps throughout.
504
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.279
Why was it important to show the brain visually rather
505
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:51.920
than describe it. What does a witch or a mystic
506
00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.920
see in those maps that they might not otherwise grasp?
507
00:31:56.519 --> 00:32:01.839
This is a great question for me. First of all,
508
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:09.920
I think that neuroscience is mainly taught in academic institutions,
509
00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:13.200
but we all have brains, and I think that it's
510
00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:16.000
such a wonderful instrument and we all have it, and
511
00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:19.839
it's great for us to understand it. So one reason
512
00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.160
I have this is to kind of break down that barriers.
513
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.720
That's kind of been the goal of my whole life,
514
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:28.480
I think so far as an educator, as talk people
515
00:32:28.519 --> 00:32:33.960
person talking in public forums, I really think that it's
516
00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:37.279
great for us to understand why we do what we
517
00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:39.319
do and why we think the way we think. So
518
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:41.880
that's one thing. The other thing is, there are a
519
00:32:41.880 --> 00:32:45.119
lot of people who think I cannot be intuitive, or
520
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:50.000
I cannot manifest, or I cannot you know, use my
521
00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:54.359
own powers of dreams or this why why is this
522
00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:57.480
spell work so difficult for me? And I think for
523
00:32:57.559 --> 00:33:01.519
those people, if they are able to to maybe process
524
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:04.920
the different steps by which our brain is working through
525
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:09.519
these things, maybe they'll be able to find where the
526
00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:12.359
barrier is and try and tackle that a little bit.
527
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:17.480
So that's the other reason why I think that maybe visualizing, hey,
528
00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:22.319
maybe I'm not using myself centers here as much, or
529
00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:27.279
I'm not trying to those kinds of labeling them. Providing
530
00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:30.720
a labeling it a label to it might demystify the
531
00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:34.640
process a little bit in order for them to work
532
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:38.480
through their barriers and become better at their own intuitive
533
00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:40.480
and manifesting abilities.
534
00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:49.240
The subtitle of the Neuroscience of Magic includes three things intentions, spells,
535
00:33:50.039 --> 00:33:53.839
and dreams. Walk us through how each one shows up
536
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:55.200
differently in the brain.
537
00:33:56.680 --> 00:34:00.400
So in some ways this is kind of jump through
538
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:04.000
different stages of magic. For any any kind of magic,
539
00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:09.639
you need to set an intention that I'm working towards
540
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:15.360
this particular thing, and so having that goal is really important.
541
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:20.239
And part of that goal is future thinking, the idea
542
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:26.000
of the ability to project oneself out into saying I
543
00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:28.480
will be on a beach in Greece in five years,
544
00:34:28.519 --> 00:34:31.239
you know, or setting that kind of intention. So using
545
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:34.000
your default mode network a lot in that and trying
546
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:38.880
to kind of put yourself out there and say, write
547
00:34:38.920 --> 00:34:41.880
the screenplay for how your life will be five years
548
00:34:41.880 --> 00:34:44.760
from now. So we all have the ability to do this,
549
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:48.559
and this network is the kind of sense of self
550
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:51.840
where this is the part of the brain that quietens
551
00:34:51.880 --> 00:34:55.079
down when you're meditating because you're trying to remove your
552
00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:59.199
ego from the whole process. But this part of the
553
00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:01.800
brain exists you can plan for the future and also
554
00:35:01.800 --> 00:35:04.719
think about the past, so that is really involved in
555
00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:08.199
the whole intentions that imposts circuit and then I move
556
00:35:08.239 --> 00:35:12.199
into you know, how to ground yourself. And one of
557
00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:17.800
the tools of setting intentions is creating spells and rituals.
558
00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:21.400
So it might not be enough for you to just
559
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:24.760
say I want to do this. It actually might work
560
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:30.239
better if you add more permanency to it by putting
561
00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:33.639
into words, by creating a spell for it. And again,
562
00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:36.920
spells and rituals and these kinds of tools are there
563
00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:40.239
for your brain to add value to your intention, to
564
00:35:40.360 --> 00:35:43.880
make it more exciting, to make it more powerful, to
565
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:49.840
make it more actionable on some levels. So, and especially
566
00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:52.519
with words, I find it really fascinating because there's so
567
00:35:52.599 --> 00:35:55.400
much power not only over ourselves, but also when we
568
00:35:55.519 --> 00:36:00.639
use words on other people, how that really affects the person.
569
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:06.119
And so of course we're using our linguistic centers, and
570
00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:08.800
so those parts of the brains are very different in
571
00:36:08.920 --> 00:36:14.199
terms of having spells. And then finally I come to dreams,
572
00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:18.440
which is a lot more about creating those visions, especially
573
00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:21.679
when you're thinking about clairvoyants or lucid dreams and things
574
00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:26.440
like that. We are using kind of a transtranscending our
575
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:30.400
time space continuum on some level, and it's really amazing
576
00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:34.199
that we have this ability because we have areas in
577
00:36:34.239 --> 00:36:37.519
your brain, in your parietal lobes. If you're wedding headphones,
578
00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:41.039
the headphone right where that's it's it's your parietal lobe,
579
00:36:41.199 --> 00:36:43.400
and right where it slopes off the base of your
580
00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:46.360
skull on top and comes towards your ears, that becomes
581
00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:50.199
your temporal lobe. So that is your space time continuum area.
582
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:55.599
So when you're thinking about traveling on a dessert and
583
00:36:55.639 --> 00:36:58.000
a camel, even though you've never seen a camel or
584
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:00.159
never seen a dessert, you might still be able to
585
00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:03.119
picture it and think about it, think about it. So
586
00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:06.159
kind of the dreams kind of involved that kind of
587
00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:13.480
transferring your whole self into this space and time that
588
00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:16.920
doesn't exist in the physical plane. And so we're using
589
00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:19.400
some really cool parts of the brain for doing that.
590
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:23.559
And you use that in intentions because you really need
591
00:37:23.559 --> 00:37:28.360
a future cast or put yourself for other people in
592
00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:30.800
these other situations in order to kind of figure out
593
00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:32.199
what you want to happen.
594
00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:38.159
What is the single most surprising finding from neuroscience that
595
00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:41.079
changed your understanding of magical practice.
596
00:37:42.280 --> 00:37:47.679
Yeah, there was a really cool article from a while
597
00:37:47.719 --> 00:37:54.880
ago called the God's Helmet. They did this experiment on people.
598
00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:58.880
They started this experiment where people who are having some
599
00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:03.920
seizures in the temp epileptic seizures, they used to dampen
600
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:08.880
them by putting a helmet on them and and zapping
601
00:38:09.039 --> 00:38:11.039
a part of the brain in the temporal lobe. So
602
00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:14.960
if you if you put your hands on your temples
603
00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:17.559
and kind of slide it all the way back towards
604
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:19.239
the tips of your ears, so that's kind of your
605
00:38:19.239 --> 00:38:21.320
temporal lobe, if you want to think about it that way.
606
00:38:21.800 --> 00:38:24.440
So they kind of zapped that area and they found
607
00:38:24.440 --> 00:38:28.320
that when they did that, people would they would help
608
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:31.719
cure the epilepsy, but they would also have mystical experiences
609
00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:38.000
and things that spiritual experiences. And this evidence is not new,
610
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:40.800
It's been there for a while. And and I think
611
00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:43.639
one of the authors of the study actually went went
612
00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:48.880
ahead and created a Shiva's helmet, and and I was
613
00:38:48.960 --> 00:38:53.800
just fascinated by the whole thing. That they didn't call
614
00:38:53.840 --> 00:38:58.119
it magical experiences, but that's what it was. And how
615
00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:03.199
a lot of really extraordinary stuff is hidden behind scientific
616
00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:07.280
jargon is something that I'm as really surprised about.
617
00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:11.599
Yeah, how may we use our brains to make intuitive
618
00:39:11.679 --> 00:39:15.000
decisions and gain transformational insight.
619
00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:20.000
So to explain that, I need to kind of tease
620
00:39:20.039 --> 00:39:24.119
apart what intuition and insight are. Intuition is when your
621
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:30.800
brain is unconsciously processing a lot of patterns around us
622
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:35.519
and then using that to make leaps of faith judgments.
623
00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:42.360
It's you have the power of intuition because we need
624
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:47.639
to make quick decisions sometimes which cannot You cannot wait
625
00:39:47.679 --> 00:39:51.039
for logical, step by step processing for it. So if
626
00:39:51.079 --> 00:39:55.360
you if you see a lion, you need to immediately know, okay,
627
00:39:55.400 --> 00:39:57.440
am I going to run no climate tree? Or you
628
00:39:57.440 --> 00:40:00.719
can't sit and think, oh if I do do this,
629
00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:03.400
the lione will attack me, or if I do that,
630
00:40:03.480 --> 00:40:05.039
something else is going to happen. If you start thinking that,
631
00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:08.199
you'll die. So we have the power of intuitive processing
632
00:40:08.280 --> 00:40:11.119
in order for us to quickly decide what is the
633
00:40:11.159 --> 00:40:15.599
best thing to do at this moment in time. And
634
00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:20.800
for this the brain is using a lot of unconscious
635
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:27.679
information and spitting out okay, based on past experiences, based
636
00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:30.199
on the current state, this is the best thing for
637
00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:32.960
us to do right now. And we're using this part
638
00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:34.880
of the brain called the cordate nucleus, which is the
639
00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:39.519
intuition integrator to do that insight is something that comes
640
00:40:39.719 --> 00:40:46.119
later and where we are going back and dwelling on Okay,
641
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:49.920
I did that intuitive decision before? Why did I do that?
642
00:40:50.400 --> 00:40:53.880
What led me? What patterns did I notice in order
643
00:40:53.920 --> 00:40:57.920
for me to come to that particular conclusion? And sometimes
644
00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.519
you can sit and work through that and you get
645
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:05.119
that incremental insight almost and sometimes you just devote, take
646
00:41:05.119 --> 00:41:08.599
a shower, and it just hits you from Oh, that's
647
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:12.559
what happened, and that's why I chose this as a
648
00:41:12.599 --> 00:41:15.440
way to go instead of that one. And that in
649
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:18.079
Buddhism is called abisamaya, where it just hits you like
650
00:41:18.119 --> 00:41:22.719
a lightning bowl from nowhere, and that's the transformative insight.
651
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:23.119
That's the.
652
00:41:24.679 --> 00:41:26.679
Problem is we don't exercise that part of the brain
653
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:30.320
enough or often enough, so we really need to reflect
654
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:33.480
on choices that we make in order for us to
655
00:41:33.519 --> 00:41:38.119
get more inside. And the better the more you do that,
656
00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:39.960
the more you train yourself to do that, you get
657
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:42.079
better and better at your incution, so the next time
658
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:45.360
you're faced with similar situations, you will be much better
659
00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:47.159
at doing the right choice.
660
00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:52.519
My guest doctor start Ramakrishnan his new book, The Neuroscience
661
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:56.159
of Magic, How your Brain is wired for intentions, spells,
662
00:41:56.159 --> 00:41:59.159
and dreams. We'll be back with more after these words
663
00:41:59.199 --> 00:42:01.360
on the Own Time Times Radio Network.
664
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:06.519
Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big dream.
665
00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:10.880
Since two thousand and seven, HHI has been working tirelessly
666
00:42:11.119 --> 00:42:14.400
to bring help to communities with little or no oh.
667
00:42:14.760 --> 00:42:19.199
Our projects are not broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions,
668
00:42:19.599 --> 00:42:22.599
but they bring the reassurance then no one is alone
669
00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:27.280
and that someone cares. To learn more, please visit Humanityhealing
670
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:30.880
dot org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is.
671
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:34.159
So I'm a cat and I just moved in with
672
00:42:34.199 --> 00:42:36.599
this new human and she's got this little toy she's
673
00:42:36.639 --> 00:42:39.880
always playing with all day long. Tap tap tap tap,
674
00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:43.559
blue bloop. She can't put it down there it is Oh,
675
00:42:43.639 --> 00:42:46.440
and get this, she even talks to it. Last week
676
00:42:46.519 --> 00:42:49.840
she asked it for Chinese and guess what eggrel showed
677
00:42:49.960 --> 00:42:53.000
up Like magic, humans have cool toys.
678
00:42:53.119 --> 00:42:54.800
A person is the best thing to happen to a
679
00:42:54.840 --> 00:42:57.159
shelter pet be that person adopt.
680
00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:59.239
Brought to you by the ad Council and the Shelter
681
00:42:59.280 --> 00:42:59.800
Pet Project.
682
00:43:02.599 --> 00:43:07.679
Back on Destination Unlimited, My guest this week, doctor sittarth Rama, Krishnan.
683
00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:11.440
We're talking about his new book, The Neuroscience of Magic,
684
00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:16.760
How your brain is wired for intentions, spells, and dreams, Sitharth,
685
00:43:16.920 --> 00:43:20.000
Is there neuroscience involved in mind reading?
686
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:26.400
How could they not be right? Yes, I would say definitely.
687
00:43:26.639 --> 00:43:29.800
I don't know if we have enough evidence to say
688
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:34.400
what exactly is going on. But one thing is if
689
00:43:34.559 --> 00:43:39.880
I'm talking to you right now, and I am if
690
00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:42.559
we are face to face, more than if I'm just
691
00:43:42.760 --> 00:43:44.639
listening to you. But even if I'm just listening to you,
692
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:51.880
I am immediately trying to assess your tone of voice,
693
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:57.239
how you look, body language in order to understand what
694
00:43:57.320 --> 00:44:00.960
your situation is right now. And then the next thing
695
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:06.480
that happens is I am mirroring your emotions in my brain.
696
00:44:07.239 --> 00:44:11.039
So this is what is called as effective empathy. Where
697
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:15.320
if I see someone slouched, I might slouch myself, or
698
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:17.679
at least in the picture in my head, i'm slouching
699
00:44:17.719 --> 00:44:20.119
as well. If I see someone frown, I'm doing the
700
00:44:20.199 --> 00:44:23.119
same thing. So I'm mirroring someone's emotions. So the first
701
00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:26.079
thing is you're perceiving it, and then you're mirroring it.
702
00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:29.840
And then the next one is where you're mentalizing someone.
703
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:34.800
And this concept is really fascinating because we're really creating
704
00:44:34.840 --> 00:44:37.599
a small goal of the other individual in our heads,
705
00:44:38.119 --> 00:44:42.519
and we are creating on this goalm based on everything
706
00:44:42.559 --> 00:44:48.599
you've perceived so far. We are placing aspirations and desires
707
00:44:48.639 --> 00:44:52.800
and intentions. The idea being that if you see someone happy,
708
00:44:53.239 --> 00:44:55.920
you're thinking about what is making them happy right now?
709
00:44:57.320 --> 00:45:00.760
How are they going to behave because you're happy, we
710
00:45:01.119 --> 00:45:05.639
as social creatures need to constantly understand what the person
711
00:45:05.679 --> 00:45:07.400
is going to do next in order for us to
712
00:45:08.159 --> 00:45:11.800
move forward or experience the world without without harming ourselves.
713
00:45:11.800 --> 00:45:14.960
So it's almost like a survival mechanism we've developed. And
714
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.719
but this mentalizing bit is also going to help us
715
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:22.199
understand what people's motivations are and how what they what
716
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:25.039
their behaviors are going to be. So we're literally judging
717
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:27.000
people all the time, even though we don't like to
718
00:45:27.079 --> 00:45:31.320
say that. And I think that all feeds into this
719
00:45:31.400 --> 00:45:35.199
process of mind reading, if you want to call it that.
720
00:45:36.320 --> 00:45:40.159
Where do we feel emotions and how may we navigate
721
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:43.559
connections between brain and body in those decisions.
722
00:45:44.199 --> 00:45:47.639
Definitely, I am a very cerebral person and for a
723
00:45:47.679 --> 00:45:50.519
long time I was not very connected with my body.
724
00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:53.760
But the more I'm thinking about it, I'm realizing that
725
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:58.039
we feel emotions more in our body, and then the
726
00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:01.519
brain then labels it as I'm feeling anxious, so I'm
727
00:46:01.519 --> 00:46:05.000
feeling sad and so on. So the pathway for it
728
00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:09.679
is when we experience something, the information goes into our
729
00:46:09.719 --> 00:46:14.000
heads from our sensory systems, and then it immediately transfers
730
00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:17.599
over to your hypothalamus, which is so if I took
731
00:46:17.599 --> 00:46:20.039
a pencil and shoved it up my nose, don't do
732
00:46:20.119 --> 00:46:23.239
it at home. You kind of go into your petuitary
733
00:46:23.280 --> 00:46:26.480
and then your hypothalamus, and your hypothalamus is your master
734
00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:32.440
regulator of hormonal systems. So the hypothalamus is almost immediately
735
00:46:32.480 --> 00:46:36.760
going to use the sensory information to trigger changes in
736
00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:43.639
your body hormonal flushes of like say adrenaline or epinephrine,
737
00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:47.320
and then then your body is going to react to
738
00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:51.360
that based on what is happening. And so if you
739
00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:55.679
see something frightening, your pupils might dilate and your heart
740
00:46:55.719 --> 00:46:58.800
will beat faster, and your lung capacity is going to
741
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:02.199
maybe become you might start breathing more heavily. So all
742
00:47:02.239 --> 00:47:07.440
this is happening like immediately without you consciously thinking about it.
743
00:47:07.440 --> 00:47:10.119
It's not like you're saying your brain is saying, oh,
744
00:47:10.199 --> 00:47:13.079
I'm feeling frightened, so I need to increase my heart rate.
745
00:47:13.079 --> 00:47:20.360
It's all like happening autonomically, and then once your body
746
00:47:20.519 --> 00:47:24.159
acts in a certain way, your brain then gets the
747
00:47:24.280 --> 00:47:27.039
information and then it says, you know what, I've experienced
748
00:47:27.039 --> 00:47:31.559
this in the past, and so this means I'm scared
749
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:35.840
or I'm feeling anxious, and you're then labeling it and
750
00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:38.679
then verbalizing it. So it takes a while before you
751
00:47:38.679 --> 00:47:42.519
can actually verbalize it. And if there's a disconnect between
752
00:47:42.559 --> 00:47:45.280
those two systems where your brain is saying something and
753
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:48.400
your body is saying something else, then you're in big trouble.
754
00:47:48.440 --> 00:47:52.280
That's when you get into a lot of mental health difficulties.
755
00:47:52.800 --> 00:47:55.639
Where does the expression I have a gut feeling about
756
00:47:55.679 --> 00:47:56.639
something come from?
757
00:47:57.039 --> 00:47:59.079
Yeah, so if you look at it, a lot of
758
00:47:59.119 --> 00:48:03.960
metaphors you are to do the body. You know, I'm
759
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:09.159
feeling butterflies in my stomach, or I feel I feel
760
00:48:09.400 --> 00:48:13.039
a gut punch, and things like that. So that's literally
761
00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:16.239
the gut feeling is coming from your gut, your stomach
762
00:48:16.280 --> 00:48:19.800
clenching or unclenching the chemicals in your stomach, literally seeing
763
00:48:19.840 --> 00:48:22.440
more acid or less acid, and all of this is
764
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:25.760
part of this whole sensory system that's called inter reception.
765
00:48:26.480 --> 00:48:29.079
And the idea is we talk a lot about perception,
766
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:33.000
perceptual senses of sight, sound, smell, and so on, but
767
00:48:33.639 --> 00:48:37.079
what we don't he talk about as much is how
768
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:43.039
your body has sensors everywhere inside your heartbeat, your stomach
769
00:48:43.159 --> 00:48:47.679
mechanism sensors, your chemical sensor, hormone sensors, so your body
770
00:48:47.760 --> 00:48:51.000
is chock full of sensors in every part and those
771
00:48:51.159 --> 00:48:53.920
are all sent into your brain in a part called
772
00:48:53.960 --> 00:48:56.880
the insular, which is deep in your brain, and a
773
00:48:56.880 --> 00:48:59.480
lot of consciousness scientists think that that might be the
774
00:48:59.519 --> 00:49:03.559
seat of consciousness. The idea being that if you can
775
00:49:03.639 --> 00:49:08.159
quieten down the insula, you transcend your body almost because
776
00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:11.719
you're kind of becoming unaware of your body, and so
777
00:49:11.840 --> 00:49:17.239
we're using that introceptive senses constantly. In a way, it's
778
00:49:17.239 --> 00:49:20.559
good that it's unconscious, because if you're always conscious about it,
779
00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:23.159
you'd probably go crazy if you know every single thing
780
00:49:23.199 --> 00:49:28.039
that's happening inside. But if right now I paused and said, okay,
781
00:49:28.039 --> 00:49:32.079
for the next two weeks, note down your heartbeat, and
782
00:49:33.320 --> 00:49:35.320
right now you might not be able to be consciously
783
00:49:35.360 --> 00:49:38.760
aware of it. But after two weeks, if you started
784
00:49:38.760 --> 00:49:42.320
doing this the routine every day, you'll be pretty accurate
785
00:49:42.360 --> 00:49:44.440
in predicting how fast your heart is beating.
786
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:50.840
What may performing spiritual and magical rituals do in terms
787
00:49:50.840 --> 00:49:52.639
of rewiring the brain.
788
00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:57.679
Spiritual rituals there are different ways, So if you think
789
00:49:57.719 --> 00:50:03.679
about it in terms of a lot of literature is
790
00:50:03.719 --> 00:50:09.280
out there on the anthropological value of spiritual rituals. They
791
00:50:09.320 --> 00:50:12.519
say that when you're involved in spiritual practice, especially in
792
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:17.719
a community, it creates a lot of social bonding. People
793
00:50:18.280 --> 00:50:22.400
tend to like a lot. For example, there was a
794
00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:28.960
big study on people walking on coals of coals of fire,
795
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:33.840
like the fire walking rituals, and how when even the
796
00:50:33.960 --> 00:50:37.480
people performing it and the people who were around the
797
00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:42.599
ritual were all experiencing a certain kind of euphoria almost together.
798
00:50:43.320 --> 00:50:47.000
So a lot of spiritual practices might actually help with
799
00:50:47.159 --> 00:50:50.760
social bonding. And even altruism is kind of what they
800
00:50:51.039 --> 00:50:57.800
allude it towards, and so in that way, spiritual rituals
801
00:50:57.840 --> 00:51:00.679
can give you a sense of community and sense of
802
00:51:01.400 --> 00:51:04.960
feeling finding finding a place in your world on some level,
803
00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:12.920
and I think magical practices can help you with finding
804
00:51:13.960 --> 00:51:17.000
out of the box solutions because on some level we
805
00:51:17.239 --> 00:51:23.480
are again trying to connect dots or find connections between
806
00:51:23.519 --> 00:51:28.800
things that have no logical explanation between them. So I
807
00:51:28.840 --> 00:51:33.320
think it we indulged in magical practices that might help
808
00:51:33.360 --> 00:51:38.000
us become more creative and think of solutions which are
809
00:51:38.639 --> 00:51:43.719
outside the ordinary, which frankly, in this current world, I
810
00:51:43.719 --> 00:51:45.239
would probably say we need a lot.
811
00:51:45.079 --> 00:51:49.400
Of absolutely and what about setting up rituals and alters
812
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.639
on sacred space? What does that do creating that sacred space?
813
00:51:53.719 --> 00:51:57.719
So creating sacred spaces is definitely, first of all, it's
814
00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:01.960
reframing your brain the idea that this particular area is
815
00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:07.280
going to be important for something, and we do that,
816
00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:10.519
you know, regularly. Like even when they say, oh, you
817
00:52:10.519 --> 00:52:14.000
know you develop a regular writing practice, one of the
818
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:17.400
first things they say is create a space where when
819
00:52:17.400 --> 00:52:20.960
you go in, that space is going to be for writing.
820
00:52:21.519 --> 00:52:24.360
So it's more for a creative practice, but in a way,
821
00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:27.920
it is creating a kind of allowing your brain to say,
822
00:52:28.320 --> 00:52:31.079
when I'm in this area, I'm going to be writing.
823
00:52:31.559 --> 00:52:34.519
So in that way, when you're saying creating a sacred space,
824
00:52:34.639 --> 00:52:37.199
it's kind of allowing the brain to think that in
825
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:41.880
this particular location, I'm going to act to be more spiritual,
826
00:52:42.079 --> 00:52:46.599
or be more magical, or bring in the divinity into
827
00:52:46.639 --> 00:52:51.280
this particular location. So that's one way we are reframing
828
00:52:51.519 --> 00:52:55.840
what our location we're in into creating that space, and
829
00:52:56.239 --> 00:52:58.800
that then adds value to what were you're doing, right,
830
00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:01.800
because that's one of the main things is how important
831
00:53:01.920 --> 00:53:04.760
your brain is constantly thinking, Okay, why am I doing this?
832
00:53:04.760 --> 00:53:08.079
This is really important to me? And when you say that, yes,
833
00:53:08.119 --> 00:53:10.920
this is actually sacred, this is important, this is much
834
00:53:10.960 --> 00:53:14.320
more than just a whim for me, the brain is
835
00:53:14.360 --> 00:53:18.760
then adding more intent behind making that work.
836
00:53:19.400 --> 00:53:22.199
Is that comparable to what someone experiences when they go
837
00:53:22.239 --> 00:53:24.000
into their selective house of worship.
838
00:53:24.800 --> 00:53:29.559
Mmm, that's a really good question, isn't it. I think
839
00:53:29.639 --> 00:53:36.760
there we are also using faith. Faith it also comes
840
00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:40.360
into the picture, and the idea of collective faith is
841
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.679
also something that's there where we're also dependent on the
842
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:47.760
belief systems of others, which we can almost palpably sense.
843
00:53:49.239 --> 00:53:52.360
So when we go into collective areas of how worship,
844
00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:56.119
I think that that also is there where we are
845
00:53:56.119 --> 00:53:59.119
not only experiencing our own faith, but also the faith
846
00:53:59.159 --> 00:54:03.280
of others. But yeah, but they've also they've actually weirdly
847
00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:08.199
found that the areas of the brain that have religious
848
00:54:08.239 --> 00:54:14.920
belief systems and belief in spirituality are actually not the same. Uh,
849
00:54:15.559 --> 00:54:18.239
just that the locations of what were where they were
850
00:54:18.280 --> 00:54:22.400
looking at were actually slightly different. And the idea of
851
00:54:22.679 --> 00:54:26.480
I think when when they talk about religious systems, they
852
00:54:26.519 --> 00:54:30.679
were talking more about fear fear based stuff was popping up,
853
00:54:31.199 --> 00:54:34.480
whereas in spiritual practices the fear fear based stuff was
854
00:54:34.519 --> 00:54:35.840
not popping up as much.
855
00:54:36.199 --> 00:54:39.119
So what would you like your readers to take away
856
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:41.320
from the neuroscience of magic.
857
00:54:41.599 --> 00:54:44.679
I would like to take them to take away the
858
00:54:44.760 --> 00:54:49.239
idea of if they had shut down some of their
859
00:54:51.079 --> 00:54:55.280
magical experiences from their childhood, that they can actually go
860
00:54:55.440 --> 00:55:02.199
back to some of that. And also that everybody can,
861
00:55:03.039 --> 00:55:07.480
given the right tools, practice some of these tools and
862
00:55:07.519 --> 00:55:10.199
techniques and get better at them. You don't need to
863
00:55:10.239 --> 00:55:15.360
have special abilities in order for you to start working
864
00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:19.119
on some of these. So I do wanted to make
865
00:55:19.239 --> 00:55:22.199
access made them to think of this as accessible for them,
866
00:55:22.840 --> 00:55:26.639
given that they have the brain circuits that allow them
867
00:55:26.719 --> 00:55:30.800
to be magical allow them to create intention and spells
868
00:55:30.840 --> 00:55:31.760
and rituals.
869
00:55:32.079 --> 00:55:35.159
My guest doctor said Hearthramer Krushn on his brand new
870
00:55:35.199 --> 00:55:38.800
book The Neuroscience of Magic, How your Brain is Wired
871
00:55:38.840 --> 00:55:42.079
for intentions, spells and dreams. Please share one more time
872
00:55:42.079 --> 00:55:44.639
with our listeners within get all of your wonderful books
873
00:55:44.639 --> 00:55:46.800
and find out more about you and your amazing work.
874
00:55:46.880 --> 00:55:50.480
Yeah, thank you for this conversation. My website is brain
875
00:55:50.559 --> 00:55:53.400
mystic dot com. That's b R A I N M
876
00:55:53.559 --> 00:55:57.119
Y S t I C dot com and my Instagram
877
00:55:57.239 --> 00:55:59.760
is sidwits SI D D b I T S. You
878
00:55:59.800 --> 00:56:03.599
can find my Nerotato deck and links to my books
879
00:56:03.639 --> 00:56:04.559
on my website.
880
00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:07.239
Thank you so much for joining us and sharing all
881
00:56:07.239 --> 00:56:08.719
of this amazing information.
882
00:56:09.199 --> 00:56:11.920
Thank you, thank you so much for this wonderful conversation.
883
00:56:12.159 --> 00:56:15.679
And thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm
884
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:18.800
Victor the Voice Firman. Have a wonderful week