Next week we are publishing a podcast conversation with Shamil Chandaria—a former advisor to Google DeepMind and a research fellow at Imperial College London Centre for Psychedelic Research and Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing
I’m curious if you’ve read Dr. Ian McGilchrist’s work. Specifically related to the brain as a prediction machine as opposed to just the left hemisphere, while the right operates in a different mode of operation, locus of attention, etc. After reading The Master and his Emissary I started thinking differently about meditation’s purpose in human flourishing in this era. To me it seems that it mediates the power struggle between the two hemispheres, one of which is constantly reinforcing dominance due to the way society is structured.
Seeing the brain as a predictive organ makes its evolutionary function so clear. It also helps explain why meditation and psychedelics can help improve brain function (by turning the prediction machine on itself). Nicely written. Thank you.
I have interpreted the most powerful impact of psychedelics as the clearing away of prior assumptions. As, assumptions are a convenient efficiency trick to not have to continue expending conscious effort to endlessly rethink those things. But it is these assumptions, within which most people's perception is trapped in assumptive biases and conclusions. To clear the assumptions, is to see things anew and open to reconsideration and reinterpretation.
"Psychedelics, too, can act as a catalyst for this process, especially in their ability to dissolve rigid predictive models temporarily. "
I’m curious if you’ve read Dr. Ian McGilchrist’s work. Specifically related to the brain as a prediction machine as opposed to just the left hemisphere, while the right operates in a different mode of operation, locus of attention, etc. After reading The Master and his Emissary I started thinking differently about meditation’s purpose in human flourishing in this era. To me it seems that it mediates the power struggle between the two hemispheres, one of which is constantly reinforcing dominance due to the way society is structured.
Thanks, Nick. I haven't read McGilchrist yet, your note is making it clear that I should!
Recently I posited that it seems people orient to predictive dynamics or hemispheric dynamics (https://x.com/zach_haigney/status/1844387617049281009) but I sense that is probably a surface level distinction.
This is great and so well articulated! Thanks Zach!
Seeing the brain as a predictive organ makes its evolutionary function so clear. It also helps explain why meditation and psychedelics can help improve brain function (by turning the prediction machine on itself). Nicely written. Thank you.
I have interpreted the most powerful impact of psychedelics as the clearing away of prior assumptions. As, assumptions are a convenient efficiency trick to not have to continue expending conscious effort to endlessly rethink those things. But it is these assumptions, within which most people's perception is trapped in assumptive biases and conclusions. To clear the assumptions, is to see things anew and open to reconsideration and reinterpretation.
"Psychedelics, too, can act as a catalyst for this process, especially in their ability to dissolve rigid predictive models temporarily. "