Understanding Consciousness Is More Important Than Ever | Michael Pollan

@13:30 I remember telling my Catholic mother about Ayahuasca, and how shamans explained how plants "spoke" to humans and told them which plants to combine to make it. My father (who is a Deacon) heard us talking and scoffed. My mother challenged him and said, "what, you don't think plants could communicate with humans long ago? You believe in the story of the burning bush that spoke to Moses, which is basically God communicating to a human through a plant!" That was the day I realized my mother was WAY more open minded than I had ever given her credit for.

As a woman, I suggest that consciousness comes before matter not after. I knew my sons consciousness, then I grew his body for 9 months, then I birthed him. He's now 47, I am 78, and we can share thoughts, feelings, senses verbal and non-verbal, and both receive the high level of comfort, that we shared when he was first placed on my chest. That is the power of consciousness. The body is more recently referred to as ' a meat sack', recognizing that the conscience will always exist in other realms with or without a framework of matter. Really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you

"I think we're living in more mystery than I thought." Michael Pollan

I've been following the topic of consciousness since I experienced a strange moment four years ago. One of my good friends, whom I hadn't seen in a while, died. I didn't know he was ill. The night he died, I suddenly thought of him, that it would be worth meeting up and that I would text him in the morning. I felt as if he had just thought of it, such a strange feeling... In the morning, I was woken by a text message from another friend who said he had died that night. This changed my approach to consciousness.

Back in the 70s, I experimented with LSD. The best place to be was in nature. Walking in the forest the life of plants and animals appeared to take on an energetic animation. It felt as though the world was talking to me. When I did see people or go indoors it seemed as if a door slammed shut.

'Our world is not only stranger than we know, its stranger than we can possibly ever imagine.' J.B.Haldane

every guest on this channel is my people. Love what the channel is doing.

Plants are sentient, but perhaps a group or unitary fashion. I am a completely rational engineer, but I was walking through the forest, and the trees communicated with me through my inner voice, and I could tell they were speaking as one voice. They told me that I was not separate from the life forces that grow and animate them. Then I came across this being that told me it was "the One Being that loves to live in all forms, but does not depend on them." I could see this being underneath and as the animating and reality giving entity of all forms, including ones we don't think of as living. I knew that this Being was reality itself and that I was just an evolved pattern with essentially no reality except for the One Being living through me. The same was true for all other forms. The boundary of myself became porous and I was also one with the One Being, while maintaining my subjective perspective.

Ths makes my day. I now say "MAKE it a good day' to others instead of Have a good day. Let's endorse our agency !

Hans is an exceptional interviewer. This was great as always.