Ummagumma

As I posted recently , philosopher Martin Heidegger gave a famous 1966 interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel , where he made the striking, ominous claim that "only a god can save us" from the technological enframing of modern society. As I consider the remarkable diversity and acceleration of neuroscience breakthroughs in just the past five years (much of it in this past year!), and its potential to completely change our understanding of the way human cognition works and enhance our well-being, I ponder that possibly this "god" might actually be neuroscience itself. Heidegger did not mean a deity, per se, he meant a transformational force in the world that did not exist at that time. He could not see a solution to enframing in 1966 so he made his non-religious plea. I see neuroscience as that transformative force that will fundamentally reshape our understanding of ourselves and create pathways to enhance human flourishing in ways previously unimagin...

Click this image to watch this incredible two-hour-forty-five minute video. There are few things I believe in more than the promise of contemporary neuroscience. I think it has more potential to revolutionize human behavior and cognitive well-being than anything else available to us. It is, perhaps, the most powerful force in the world no one is talking about. For the first time in human history, we are discovering how the brain operates and, just as importantly, specific techniques to optimize our behavior and our experiences. I intend to spend the next several posts delving in to this emerging marvel. I thought I would start with one of the profession's better known practitioners, Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman. Huberman is a vital translator of this revolution with a wildly successful YouTube channel which is approaching 7 million (!) subscribers. This fact alone is hugely inspiring as it reflects the hunger out there for this type of information. He is also...

In the 21st century the discipline of psychology has evolved into something far more diverse and sophisticated than its founders like Freud and Jung ever envisioned. Through advances in neuroscience, medical technology, new research methodologies, and an explosion of diverse theoretical models, we now have unprecedented tools for understanding human behavior, cognition, and development both individually and culturally. This progress deserves recognition and celebration. The 1990s represented something of a high-water mark for psychology's recent influence on mainstream society and institutions, particularly through the viral psychological concepts of Flow and Emotional Intelligence. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of Flow, introduced to the mainstream through his exceptional 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , has demonstrated remarkable staying power and practical influence. Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University an...