How Matter Became Conscious and Alive with James Cooke

James Cooke PhD trained as a neuroscientist after an awakening as a teenager that showed him the reality of spiritual states of consciousness. He holds three degrees from Oxford University (a PhD and Masters in Neuroscience & a BA in Experimental Psychology). He has conducted scientific research for over a decade at institutions such as Oxford University, University of California, Berkeley, University College London, Trinity College Dublin, and Riken Brain Sciences Institute in Tokyo. James is the author of The Dawn of Mind: How Matter Became Conscious and Alive, which synthesizes science and spiritual insight to offer a radical solution to the Hard Problem of Consciousness. His website is https://www.drjamescooke.com/

Here he describes his position as a philosophical monist who maintains that life requires consciousness and that consciousness requires life. He sees himself as a "naturalist," but only in the sense of rejecting dualistic interpretations of reality. If supposed supernatural evidence is genuine, he maintains that it will fit into a monistic description of the world.

00:00 Introduction
02:23 James' spiritual awakening
06:41 Buddhism
15:45 Process philosophy and Alfred North Whitehead
18:29 The "hard problem of consciousness"
23:14 Naturalism and consciousness
34:13 Consciousness and the brain
39:59 Artificial intelligence and consciousness
44:51 Autopoiesis and phenomenology
52:11 Conclusion

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He serves as Co-Director for Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

(Recorded on November 30, 2024)

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