À PROPOS DE CET ÉPISODE
In this episode, I sit down with Georg Northoff to explore the complex relationship between the brain, consciousness, and the self. We start by questioning the assumption that neuroscience alone can fully explain who we are. Georg points out the limitations of reductionist approaches, showing why studying neurons and brain regions in isolation isn’t enough to answer fundamental questions about experience and identity.
Our conversation moves into the idea of the self not as a static object in the brain, but as something that emerges in relation to the body and the world. Georg explains how consciousness might be better understood through the connections between brain, environment, and time, rather than by searching for a single “location” of self. He draws on philosophy as much as neuroscience, stressing that the most important questions often lie between disciplines rather than within one.
Together, we reflect on what it means to be human when science cannot give a final answer to the question of existence. Is the self reducible to neurons firing in the brain? Or is it something that can only be grasped by looking at how life unfolds in context through relationships, history, and lived experience? This conversation invites us to rethink not just what consciousness is, but how we go about asking the question in the first place.
00:00 – Introduction: Welcoming Georg Northoff and his pioneering research in neurophilosophy
02:00 – Living across cultures: how context shapes consciousness and perception
05:00 – The difference in time perception between Eastern and Western thought
08:00 – How Northoff became fascinated with the brain–mind connection
11:00 – What the self is and why it matters for understanding consciousness
14:00 – Do animals have a sense of self? Insights from neuroscience and evolution
17:00 – The relational nature of self and its connection to well-being
21:00 – Where is the self located? From the heart to the space between us
25:00 – The relational self in Heidegger and Eastern philosophy
29:00 – Meditation, non-duality, and what neuroscience reveals about spiritual experience
33:00 – How training and neuroplasticity reshape the sense of self
37:00 – Can two different perceptions of reality both be true?
41:00 – Understanding mental disorders through the speed of the self
45:00 – Personalized therapy and the future of psychiatry
48:00 – Science, mysticism, and the beauty of connection
51:00 – What great science and great spirituality share
53:00 – Closing reflections: consciousness, culture, and the meaning of being
