Amanda Feilding on 50 Years of Psychedelic Research-Reaction & Analysis

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You know, we have these incredibly high resolution images of
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black holes, right, like objects that are tens of millions
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of light years away from Earth.
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Right, Yeah, the deep space stuff exactly.
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And we've mapped the entire human genome. We've sent probes,
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you know, way outside our solar sits.
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So's totally the voyager probes and all that.
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Yeah, But up until incredibly recently, generating just a simple
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visual image of a human mind on LSD was well,
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it was considered basically scientifically impossible.
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Which is just wild when you actually think about the
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timeline it is.
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And the thing is, it wasn't because we lacked the
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cameras or like the MRI machine.
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No, the tech has been there for a long time, right.
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It was because we lacked the cultural courage. We literally
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looked to the absolute furtest edges of the physical universe
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before we dared to, you know, look inward at the
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specific altered state of our own minds.
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It really is one of the most fascinating paradoxes in
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modern science. Honestly. Yeah, we're basically dealing with a decades
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long freeze on human knowledge, and it was driven entirely
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by societal stigma, not by any actual scientific limitation which brings.
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Us exactly to the mission of our deep dive today.
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So I want to welcome you, our listener, to a
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journey that is going to take us to the very
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edge of what we currently understand about the human mind.
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And the structures that actually govern it.
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Yes, exactly, we are working from a really fascinating stack
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of source material today. It's all centered around this massive.
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Cultural touchstone, a huge one.
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Yeah, we're analyzing the Joe Rogan experience, specifically episode number
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two thousand and two.
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Which came out what June twenty seventh.
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Yep, June twenty seventh, twenty twenty three, And the guest
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sitting across the table for this really monumental interview was
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Amanda Fielding, right, And for anyone.
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Who is interested in the intersection of neuroscience and global
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drug policy and just the raw mechanics of human consciousness,
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Amanda Fielding is just a foundational figure totally like her
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influence on the modern scientific landscape. It really cannot be overstated.
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It can't. And our goal today is to unpack exactly
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why this specific interview carries so much monumental significance.
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We're really going to get into the weeds on her
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credentials too, because they're.
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So unique, right, this incredibly unique multidisciplinary background, and we're
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going to dig into the groundbreaking physiological discoveries that her
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foundation has championed over the years.
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It's this amazing space where art, policy, advocacy and hard
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empirical neuroscience just kind of collide.
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Collide, exactly, And as we tease just a second ago,
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we're going to explore the mechanics of how she actually
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managed to pull off something.
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Truly historic getting those images.
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Yes, generating the world's very first actual images of a
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human brain on LSD.
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Which is no small feat. But to understand the weight
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of those images, I mean, we really first have to
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understand the timeline, the context exactly. Y. The context of
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this interview is arguably just as important as the data
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they discuss. The source material explicitly highlights that she has
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been advancing psychedelic research for over fifty.
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Years, for half a century, And the juxtaposition here is
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just it's.
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Wild to like a massive contract, Right.
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You have this incredibly loud, totally mainstream platform in the
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Joe Rogan experience. I mean, it's arguably one of the
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biggest interview shows on the planet easily and sitting there
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is a woman who has spent fifty years operating in
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field that was, for the vast majority of that time
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completely exiled from legitimate society.
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Right if you trace that fifty year timeline backward from
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the interview date in June twenty.
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Twenty three, Yeah, where does that put us?
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That place is the beginning of her really intensive efforts
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squarely in the early nineteen seventies.
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Wow.
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The seventies Yeah, and the early nineteen seventies marked the
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absolute zenith of global prohibition regarding psychoactive substances.
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The height of the War on Drugs exactly.
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It was an er characterized by severe legal crackdowns, the
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disman of existing research programs. I mean, they just shut
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everything down. It was a near total freeze on any
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legitimate scientific inquiry into psychedelics.
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Think about the mechanics of surviving fifty years in a
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field that the world is actively trying to erase.
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It takes an incredible amount of resilience.
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It does. It's not just that it was unpopular, it
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was literally criminalized. I was thinking about this and operating
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in that environment. It's kind of like trying to run
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a covert, completely unfunded research and development startup.
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Oh that's a good way to put it.
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Right, Like doing that inside a massive, heavily regulated global
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monopoly that has entirely outlawed your specific field of study.
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Right where your currency isn't venture capital or public grants exactly.
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Your currency is painstakingly gathered, fiercely defended, peer reviewed credibility.
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It's like keeping a tiny, flickering candle lit in a
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hurricane for half a century.
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I love that analogy, keeping a candle.
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Lit in a hurricane and then eventually use it to
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light a massive bonfire on a global stage.
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You know, that is a highly accurate way to visualize
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the friction she face.
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Honestly, because it wasn't just a lack of funding.
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No, no, for decades to even express academic curiosity about
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the therapeutic potential of these substances. It was tantamount to
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professional suicide for a researcher.
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Wow, professional suicide.
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Literally, funding evaporated overnight, university backing disappeared, and the regulatory
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hurdles they were intentionally designed to be insurmountable. They didn't
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want the research happening, right, So the fact that she
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maintained forward momentum through the absolute darkest days of prohibition.
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It's basically a masterclass in institutional navigation.
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And that fifty year uphel battle brings us to the
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actual duration of the interview itself.
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Right, the JRE episode, Yeah.
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The source material notes this specific JAR episode clocks in
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at two hours and forty minutes, well, three hours, two
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hours and forty minutes of deep, uninterrupted conversation about psychedelics.
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Well, the duration self is a metric of cultural appetite.
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I think, how so we'll think about it. A topic
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that for decades was relegated to the fringes of society, right,
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spoken about in hushed tones or just dismissed entirely by
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the mainstream.
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Establishment's absolutely dismissed.
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And now it's commanding nearly three hours of intense, focused
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attention on one of the world's largest media platforms.
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It really shows a massive shift, it does.
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We've transitioned from decades of like thought terminating soundbites and
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government propaganda.
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I'd say no to drugs, basically.
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Exactly, from that to long form, rigorous exploration.
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But and this is something I wanted to ask you about.
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There is a detail in the source data regarding this
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episode that I think tells an even deeper story about
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where we are culturally.
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Oh, which detail.
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The episode carries an explicit rating?
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Yes?
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Now on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you know, an explicit
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rating often just means the hosts dropped an F bomb
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or used some heavy profanity.
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Casual conversational show Joe Rogan swears, guest swear that's entirely.
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Expected exactly, but it made me wonder does that rating
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also highlight the underlying friction of the topic itself?
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Like inherently yeah, are we just.
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Flagging the language or are we fundamentally flagging the concept? Like,
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despite fifty years of scientific advancement, is the topic of
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psychedelics still inherently provocative?
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That is a really profound structural question actually, about how
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platforms categorize.
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Information right, because it feels like more than just bad words.
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I agree, Even if the conversation is steeped in high
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level neuroscience and the mechanics of clinical trials and policy.
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Reform, hard science, basically right.
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The core subject matter altering the fundamental state of human
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consciousness via heavily scheduled substances, it remains deeply challenging to
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our cultural baseline.
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It really does. It's provocative because it asks the listener
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to question the baseline of their own reality this exactly,
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and asks us to look at the legal and societal
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boundaries we've built in question, you know, whether they were
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constructed based on empirical science or just moral panic.
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And historically it was largely moral panic. So the topic
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retains this edgy taboo weight because it inherently destabilizes the
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accepted narrative. It rocks the boat exactly. A nearly three
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hour discussion about the therapeutic dismantling of the ego and
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the alteration of perception. It pushed the boundaries of conventional
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media consumption.
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It definitely does.
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So the explicit rating kind of serves as a quiet reminder.
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It tells us that while the conversation has entered the mainstream,
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the concepts being discussed are still considered radical by the
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broader societal architecture.
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Okay, so then how does one person navigate that radical
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space for fifty years?
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That is the million dollar question, right, how.
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Do you survive the institutional hostility, build a foundation, and
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eventually force the mainstream to actually pay attention to your data?
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Well, the source material gives us a blueprint for how
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she achieved this.
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Actually does and it really comes down to her identity. Right.
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She isn't just categorized.
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As one thing. No, she wears a lot of hats.
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The text defines her with a very specific, sort of
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triangulated set of titles. It says she's an award winning
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psychedelics researcher, a policy advocate and an artist.
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Right, and she is also the founder and director of
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the Beckley Foundation.
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Which operates as a UK based think tank and NGO.
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Correct, yes, a non governmental organization And the triangulation of
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those three specific roles researcher, advocate and artist that is
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really the mechanical engine of her success.
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How so, like, how do they work together.
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Well to enact systemic change on a global scale, especially
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against entrenched prohibition. A single approach is just insufficient.
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You can't just be a scientist in a lab exactly.
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Let's examine the machinery of this thing tank. As an
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NGO aiming to change policy, the Beckley Foundation has to
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navigate labyrinthine bureaucratic, political and legal friends works.
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Which sounds like a nightmare honestly.
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Oh it is. And policy advocates require leverage they need
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undeniable proof to present to hostile legislative.
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Bodies, right, because you can't just walk into a parliament
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or like a Senate committee and say, hey, psychedelists expand
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the mind, man, you should legalize them.
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They will laugh you out of the room immediately.
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Yeah, they don't care about your spiritual journey. You need
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data that speaks their language.
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Which necessitates the role of the researcher.
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Ah, I see.
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To be an effective advocate in a highly stigmatized field,
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your data must be absolutely unassailable. You need rigorous, double blind,
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peer reviewed clinical science.
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Because without that researcher generating empirical data, the.
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Advocate has absolutely no ammunition to force legislative change. Zero.
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But here's where the tension lies, and I kind of
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want to push back on how these roles interact.
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Okay, late on me.
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So, if your entire foundation is built on the premise
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that these substances are beneficial, if your stated goal as
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a policy advocate is legislative reform, right, how difficult is
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it to simultaneously maintain the total objectivity required of a researcher.
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That's a very fair question.
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I mean, if an NGO's survival and mission depend on
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proving a specific positive outcome. Isn't there a massive structural
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temptation to curate the science to fit the policy goal?
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A conflict of interest?
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It is a critical methodological tension, and honestly, it is
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the exact angle of attack that institutional skeptics have used
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against fringe science for decades.
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Sure, it's say you're biased. Do you want it to
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be a medicine?
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Exactly? However, in a heavily scrutinized field like psychedelics, the
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burden of proof is highly asymmetrical.
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Asymmetrical what do you mean?
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Well, if a conventional pharmaceutical trial, for say, a new
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blood pressure medication, produces flawed methodology, the trial fails, but
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the industry just moves on, right.
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They just scrap that pill and try another one.
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Exactly. But if a psychedelic research foundation produces compromised data,
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it doesn't just sink the study, h it sinks everything. Yes,
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it hands the establishment the exact ammunition it needs to
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discredit the entire movement and reinstate the freeze.
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Wow, So the advocacy actually demands a much higher degree
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of scientific paranoia.
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Almost marianoia is a good word for it.
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The data has to be completely bulletproof, because literally everyone
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in the traditional establishment is just waiting for the methodology.
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To fail exactly. The scrutiny is absolute. So the survival
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of the think tank relies on the research being mathematically
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and procedurally flawless.
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Okay, so that covers the researcher and the advocate. But
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to understand the true innovation of her approach, we really
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have to factor in the third title mentioned in the source.
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Material, the artist.
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The artist had, And this is the one that fascinates
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me the most.
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It's the wildcard for sure.
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Yeah, I mean, I understand how the researcher gathers the
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data and how the advocate weaponizes that data for policy change.
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But where does an artist fit into the rigid clinical
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world of empirical neuroscience and NGA policy.
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Well, the artist is the visionary mechanism. It dictates what
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questions the researcher should even be asking in the first place.
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Interesting, how does that differ from normal science?
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Traditional clinical medicine basically operates on a pathology model. It
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asks what is broken in this human and what chemical
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intervention will return them to a functional baseline?
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Right, Like you're depressed let's numb that symptom so you
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can go to work.
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Precisely, it is inherently focused on symptom management. An artist, however,
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deals in the subjective, the experiential, and the ineffable.
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The human experience.
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Right. When an artist looks at the human mind, they
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don't just see a machine prone to failure. They see
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a vast, largely unexplored canvas.
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So the artist provides a completely different hypothesis from the start.
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Exactly the clinical researcher says, how do we suppress the
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symptom of depression? But the artist says, how do we
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fundamentally alter the architecture of this person's perception so they
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experience reality differently?
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That's spot on. The artist intuits the profound objective shift
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of the psychedelic experience.
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But an artist alone cannot change international law.
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No, they can't. And that is the brilliance of Amanda
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Fielding's career, her ability to act as a universal translator.
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A universal translator.
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I love that she takes the deeply abstract, vibrant, entirely
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subjective experience of altered consciousness right, and she rigorously translates
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it into the cold, empirical, statistical language required by the
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scientific method.
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Wow. And you know the URLs provided in the source
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material actually reflect this dualistic approach perfectly.
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Well. The websites, Yeah, yeah, we have.
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Beckley Foundation dot org, which clearly represents the institutional, policy driven,
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empirical think tank.
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Side of her work, right, that's the suit and tie
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side exactly.
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But then we also have the tripurport dot.
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Com, which is such a great name.
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It is, and that strongly implies a focus on the narrative,
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you know, the subjective, deeply personal, experiential side of altered states.
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It really does. She has built an infrastructure that honors
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both the hard statistics and the human story.
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It's a really rare synthesis, very rare.
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She hypothesized from the perspective of an artist, gathered data
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with the rigor of a researcher, and then executed the
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strategy with the acumen of an advocate.
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So what exactly is the data.
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Ah getting to the physical science?
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Yeah, I want to know what this UK based think
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tank is actually measuring. If she is translating the art
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of a trip into the science of the brain, what
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does that translation actually physically look like.
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Well, the source material gives the exact biological markers they
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are targeting.
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Okay, later on, the.
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Beckley Foundation's stated aim is to further our understanding of
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consciousness by specifically examining how changes in two physical metrics
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underlie the effects of psychoactive substances.
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And those two metrics are.
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Cerebral circulation and cournal activity.
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Cerebral circulation and neuronal activity. Okay, let's break down the
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physical mechanics of those two systems, because I feel like
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this is the engine of our entire deep dive today.
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It absolutely is.
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So if neuronal activity represents the electrical signaling, like the
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neurons firing the snaps is connecting the raw processing of
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thought and sensory.
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Input, right, the brain's communication network.
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Yeah, then cerebral circulation must just be the biological plumbing, right,
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the blood flow bringing in the oxygen and the glucose
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to provide the energy so those electrical sparks can keep firing.
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That is the precise mechanical relationship.
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Yet, oh hey good.
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The brain is actually the most metabolically demanding organ in
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the human body.
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It takes a lot of juice to run.
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It does, so neuronal activity is the communication network. You
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can think of it as the software executing the code
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of your thoughts, right, and cerebral circulation is the physical
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infrastructure delivering the vast amounts of fuel required to run
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that software.
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So the two systems are deeply physically intertwined completely.
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Where there is a surge in neuronal activity, there must
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be an immediate corresponding surge in localized blood flow to
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sustain it.
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Okay, so let's train an analogy here. Let's look at the
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brain as a massive, hyperdense, bustling metropolis.
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I like where this is going.
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The neuronal activity, the electrical sparks that is all the
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data that is the Internet, the fiber optic cables, the
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millions of text messages and phone calls zipping back and
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forth between different neighborhoods, the pure communication of the city exactly,
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and the cerebral circulation, the blood flow that is the
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physical highway system. Those are the roads and the delivery
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trucks constantly moving food and fuel into specific neighborhoods so
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that the people living there have the energy to keep
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sending those text messages.
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That is a highly effective structural analogy.
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Thanks. So, what the Beckley Foundation is positing is that
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if you want to understand what a psychoactive substance actually
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does to this city, you cannot just ask the residents
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how they feel.
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No self reporting isn't enough for policy change.
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Right, you have to physically map the internet traffic and
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the highway traffic simultaneously.
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And by doing so they achieve a profound philosophic shift.
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Because it moves it from abstract to physical.
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Exactly. For centuries, consciousness was treated as basically a ghost
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in the machine.
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Yeah, it was ethereal philosophical.
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It was the exclusive domain of theologians and abstract thinkers.
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It was deemed totally unmeasurable.
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But the Beckley Foundation fundamentally grounds consciousness and physics and biology.
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Yes, they are stating that the incredibly complex subjective experience
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of a psychedelic trip has a distinct, measurable physical footprint.
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So when a substance like LSD is introduced into the metropolis,
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they are watching to see what happens to the infrastructure.
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Does it cause a massive chaotic traffic jam on the
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standard highways.
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Or does it suddenly construct brand new temporary super highways
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between neighborhoods that have never communicated with each other before.
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Right, do parts of the city that usually operate in
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the dark suddenly light up with massive spikes and internet traffic.
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And by tracking those changes in blood flow and electrical signal,
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they are quite literally watching the brain reorganize its communication
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networks in real time.
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That is unbelievable.
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This is how they transition the conversation from mystical magic
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to measurable medicine.
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Because when you frame a psychedelic experience merely as a subjective,
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spiritual journey, it is.
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Incredibly easy for the legislative and medical establishments to dismiss it.
396
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Yeah, they just say it's recreational or unreliable or purely hallucinatory.
397
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Right, But you can't dismiss a map of physical highways.
398
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You really can't.
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If you could show a senator or a skeptical neurologist
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a scan that proves definitively that a specific chemical causes
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a measurable alteration in cerebral hemodynamics.
402
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Basically showing that it physically increases connectivity in the brain's
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data centers.
404
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Exactly, if you show them that, you immediately validate the
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experience within the rigid framework of Western medicine.
406
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It becomes a biological variable.
407
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Yes, it could be quantified, studied, adjusted, and eventually utilized
408
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precise therapeutic interventions.
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It forces the medical establishment to acknowledge that the altered
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state of consciousness is not just an illusion.
411
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Far from it. It is a profound physical reorganization of
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the brain's operating system.
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But and this is the big hurdle. To prove that
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00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:21.559
reorganization happens, you need the visual evidence you do. You
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00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:24.599
cannot just theorize about the highway traffic in the metropolis.
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You have to take a high resolution satellite photograph of
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the city while the traffic is surging.
418
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The science demands undeniable empirical proof.
419
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Which brings us to the absolute crown jewel of Amanda
420
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Fielding's fifty year career, the Milestone.
421
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Yes.
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The source text explicitly states that her work lies at
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the cutting edge of scientific research, and it specifically highlights
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that she initiated the study which generated the world's first
425
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images of the brain on.
426
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LSD, the world's very first images.
427
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Going back to our opening thought, the sheer scale of
428
00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:56.640
the delay here is staggering to me.
429
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It's almost embarrassing for the scientific community.
430
00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:03.200
Right, we mapped the stars, we split the atom, we
431
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put rovers on Mars all before we managed to capture
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a functional image of a human brain interacting with one
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of the most powerful psychoactive compounds ever discovered.
434
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It is the ultimate testament to the chilling effect of prohibitions.
435
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Serious because, as we said, the technological capacity to image
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the brain, such as functional MRI and magneto and cephiolography
437
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has existed for decades.
438
00:21:26.759 --> 00:21:27.680
We've had the cameras.
439
00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:32.200
Yes, the barrier was never technological. It was entirely political
440
00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:33.000
and bureaucratic.
441
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:35.960
And I think that makes the word initiated in our
442
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:37.680
source text carry so much weight.
443
00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:41.240
Oh, absolutely, initiated is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
444
00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:44.200
Yeah, because when the text says she initiated the study,
445
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it doesn't mean she just walked into a lab one
446
00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:47.880
afternoon and pressed a button on a camera.
447
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:48.480
No, no, no.
448
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Initiating a study of this magnitude on a globally restricted
449
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schedule I substance is practically a logistical and diplomatic siege.
450
00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:00.960
It is a massive undertaking. To initiate this research, one
451
00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:03.599
must overcome immense institutional friction.
452
00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:06.440
What does that actually look like on the ground.
453
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Well, first, it requires securing massive amounts of private.
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Funding because government grants wouldn't touch it exactly.
455
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Government grants for this type of research were virtually nonexistent.
456
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Then it requires navigating hostile regulatory boards just to secure
457
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the legal permits to physically handle the substance, which takes years,
458
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usually years. And then it requires finding a prestigious university
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willing to risk its institutional reputation and recruiting a team
460
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of elite neuroscientists willing to stake their entire careers on
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a highly controversial outcome.
462
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So she basically had to build the entire socio political
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infrastructure just to get permission to turn the machine on.
464
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Yes, she was the catalyst that forced the scientific establishment
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to finally look at something it had actively ignored for
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fifty years that is incredible and achieving those first ever images,
467
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it's really the culmination of her multidiscipline area approach.
468
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It permanently shifts the global understanding of LSD.
469
00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.559
It does it takes those deeply profound yet entirely subjective
470
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experiences like the ones detailed on platforms like Thetradeport dot
471
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com yeah, and it anchors them into hard, visual, undeniable neuroscience.
472
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It provides the definitive proof that the artist's hypothesis was
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correct all along. The brain's canvas really is vastly larger
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than we assumed.
475
00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:27.079
Exactly.
476
00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:29.680
But this brings up a philosophical tension that I think
477
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is really important to explore before we wrap up.
478
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Okay, I'm intrigued. What's the tension?
479
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So when we finally get that visual proof when we
480
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look at the functional MRI scan and we see the
481
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splotches of color representing blood flow and we map the
482
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wiring of the neuronal activity right the data, does seeing
483
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the physical mechanics strip away the magic of the experience?
484
00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:54.599
Ah, that's a classic debate.
485
00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:59.039
Right, because does reducing the profound, ineffable feeling of universal
486
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connectedness to just oh, look, there's increased cerebral circulation in
487
00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:07.240
the visual cortex. Does that demystify human consciousness in a
488
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way that is almost disappointing?
489
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:11.839
It is a really compelling philosophical debate. The fear is
490
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that biological reductionism destroys the poetry of the human experience. Yeah,
491
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that we're just meat machines exactly. However, I'd argue that
492
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an understanding of the mechanics often vastly deepens the awe
493
00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:28.160
so well When you look at those images of the
494
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brain on LSD, you are not just seeing biological plumbing, okay,
495
00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:36.039
You are looking at the physical manifestation of a mind
496
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:39.559
breaking free from its rigid evolutionary constraints.
497
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You are seeing the physical proof of a perspective shift.
498
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.720
Yes, the fact that a microscopic molecule can enter the bloodstream,
499
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cross the blood brain barrier, and fundamentally rewire the incredibly
500
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complex communication networks of human consciousness in a matter of minutes.
501
00:24:55.960 --> 00:24:58.039
It's mind blowing, literally.
502
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It is, and that we now possess the technology to
503
00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.480
actually witness that rewiring happen in real time. That does
504
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:06.799
not eliminate the magic. It reveals that the physical mechanics
505
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:10.559
of our biology are deeply, profoundly magical in their own right.
506
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:12.640
The mechanics are the magic. I think that is the
507
00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:13.880
perfect way to look at it.
508
00:25:13.880 --> 00:25:15.480
It really reframes the whole conversation.
509
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:18.000
It does well. We have covered a massive amount of
510
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:21.279
ground today tracing what is essentially a fifty year arc
511
00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:22.680
of scientific resilience.
512
00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:26.559
It is a remarkable narrative of cultural and scientific evolution,
513
00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:27.519
without a doubt.
514
00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:31.359
So for you, our listener, here is the synthesis of
515
00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:32.079
our deep.
516
00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:34.079
Dive today, bringing it all together.
517
00:25:33.880 --> 00:25:38.319
Exactly, we have unpacked the monumental significance of Amanda Fielding's
518
00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:40.319
appearance on The Joe Rogan.
519
00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:41.920
Experience episode two thousand and two.
520
00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:45.799
Yep. We explored a two hour and forty minute conversation
521
00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:50.200
that brought a fifty year marathon of fringe science directly
522
00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:53.200
into the absolute center of mainstream culture, and.
523
00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:58.680
We analyzed how a single pioneer utilize that unique triangulation artist,
524
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:02.799
policy advocating researcher to build the Beckley Foundation.
525
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:07.839
Right, a foundation that successfully navigated intense institutional hostility to
526
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:11.240
finally measure the cerebral circulation and the urnal activity of
527
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:12.319
an altered state.
528
00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:15.559
Which ultimately generated the historic world first images of a
529
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:16.880
human brain on LSD.
530
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:19.720
Such an incredible legacy, And if there is a practical
531
00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:22.759
takeaway for how we approach complex systems in our own lives,
532
00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.839
I think it has to be the immense power of
533
00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:26.160
multidisciplinary thinking.
534
00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:29.839
Oh absolutely. Amanda Fielding's career proves that if you want
535
00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:34.000
to solve an entrenched systemic problem, you really cannot look
536
00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:35.119
at it through just one lens.
537
00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:35.839
You just can't.
538
00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:39.400
Combining the open, divergent curiosity of an artist, with the
539
00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:43.319
rigorous empirical discipline of a scientists yeah, and the strategic
540
00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:47.000
diplomatic mind of an advocate. It allows you to literally
541
00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.400
make the invisible visible.
542
00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:52.559
You have to be willing to translate between different worlds.
543
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:55.319
Very true, and that leaves me with one final lingering
544
00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:57.440
thought for you to chew on as we wrap up today.
545
00:26:57.519 --> 00:26:58.000
Let's hear it.
546
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.200
We have spent this entire deep dive talking about how
547
00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:05.400
mapping the blood and the wiring proves that human consciousness
548
00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:09.440
can be drastically physically altered by chemical interventions we have.
549
00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:13.279
But if our minds can be so fundamentally reorganized by
550
00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:17.480
a shift in cerebral circulation, what does that actually say
551
00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:20.440
about our everyday, baseline, sober reality.
552
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:22.359
Oh it's a deep rabbitable, right.
553
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:26.400
Is our normal state of mind the absolute objective truth
554
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:30.440
of the physical universe? Or is everyday consciousness just one
555
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.519
of many, many possible chemical channels that our biological radios
556
00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:35.759
happen to be tuned to right now?
557
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:38.319
That is a fascinating question.
558
00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:40.680
Think about that the next time you implicitly trust your
559
00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:43.519
own perception of the world. Until next time, keep diving deep.