Was William James Right About Consciousness? | Nicolas Rouleau

Dr. Nicolas Rouleau is a neuroscientist, bioengineer, and Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University. He wrote the award-winning essay, ‘An Immortal Stream of Consciousness: The scientific evidence for the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death,’ in which he argues that the transmissive theory of consciousness may actually be more consistent with emerging scientific insights than the dominant assumption that the brain generates consciousness. In this conversation with Hans Busstra, Rouleau shares the main arguments from his essay, which touch upon his collaboration with Dr. Michael Persinger, the inventor of the ‘God Helmet,’ and his work with Michael Levin on ‘mind blindness’—the idea that science may be searching for mind in too restricted a place by focusing almost exclusively on neurons. More information on Dr. Nic Rouleau: https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-science/faculty-profiles/nicolas-rouleau/index.html Personal website: https://www.rouleaulab.com/ Further reading and scientific references discussed in this video: Rouleau's BICS Essay: 'An Immortal Stream of Consciousness: The scientific evidence for the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death.' https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/index.php/bics-afterlife-proof/bics-essay-contest-winners-runners-up/ Rouleau, N., Levin, M., et al. (2025) (Preprint; forthcoming in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). Brains and Where Else? Mapping Theories of Consciousness to Unconventional Embodiments. https://tinyurl.com/439rrn8z Rouleau, N., & Levin, M. (2023). The Multiple Realizability of Sentience in Living Systems and Beyond. eNeuro, 10(11). https://tinyurl.com/2s4bdtmm Rouleau, N. & Cimino, N. (2022). A Transmissive Theory of Brain Function: Implications for Health, Disease, and Consciousness. NeuroSci, 3(3). https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4087/3/3/32 McCraty, R., et al. (2018). Long-term study of heart rate variability responses to changes in the solar and geomagnetic environment. https://tinyurl.com/254x3b9t Rouleau, N., & Persinger, M. A. (2016). Differential responsiveness of the right parahippocampal region to electrical stimulation in fixed human brains: Implications for historical surgical stimulation studies. Epilepsy & Behavior, 60, 181–186. https://tinyurl.com/uc5jbr Rajaram, M., & Mitra, S. (1981). Correlation between convulsive seizure and geomagnetic activity. Neuroscience Letters, 24(2), 187–191. https://tinyurl.com/3snrs4cs Chapters 0:00 Introduction 4:00 What Nic Rouleau would say to William James about his theory of transmissive consciousness 7:14 What do we know empirically about how electromagnetic fields influence our brains? 10:27 How scientifically rigorous are the empirical data on the influence of the Earth's magnetic field on brains? 11:35 On Nic's mentor, Dr. Michael Persinger, the inventor of the God Helmet 14:42 Research on post-mortem brain tissue 18:09 What mental states are influenced by magnetic fields? 18:58 Electromagnetic effects in dead vs. living brains 19:45 On Michael Levin and the paradigm shift due to bioelectricity 21:24 Influencing the thoughts of deceased people 25:33 Are biological forms stored in the Earth's magnetic field? 30:21 Shielding brains from electromagnetic fields 33:12 Mind blindness: we only see 1% of the minds out there 38:55 What is the best way out of mind blindness? 41:06 Plant-based computation 42:00 The Self-Organizing Units Lab (SOUL) and what Nic is working on 43:23 Minds in a Petri dish 46:13 What counts as embodiment? 48:44 Phenomenal consciousness on different levels 53:06 What theories of consciousness can get us out of the behaviorist trap? 57:25 Nic's award-winning essay on consciousness beyond death 1:00:55 Intermediary states of consciousness, the Bardo Thodol 1:04:46 Consciousness when the radio, the brain, is completely broken 1:06:35 Why exactly is electromagnetism a better explanation of consciousness beyond death than NDEs or OBEs? 1:11:58 How does the God Helmet work? 1:17:31 Which electromagnetic fields influence our consciousness and which ones don't? 1:23:59 Can all of consciousness be stored in the Earth's magnetic field? 1:27:08 Children with past-life memories: could electromagnetism play a role there? 1:29:51 How do quantum theories of consciousness relate to the work of Nic? 1:33:42 Do our brains connect electromagnetically with each other? 1:35:28 Nic on the hard problem of consciousness 1:38:00 Aren't you just a materialist 2.0? 1:40:25 On the meaning of Nic's work Copyright © 2026 Essentia Foundation. All rights on interview content reserved.