Famous Neuroscientist on 5-MeO-DMT and Integrated Information Theory | Christof Koch

See What do we know about the risks of psychedelics? & free documentary What's in My Baggie? There is an incredible danger in thinking you can just find good psychedelics via illegal markets, I can say that from personal experience as I was attacked by a friend who thought LSD could cure his depression.

In his latest book, neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch describes how he, during a psychedelic experience on 5-MeO-DMT, felt that he was one with the universe. Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra interviews Koch on his new book and Integrated Information Theory (IIT), the scientific theory of consciousness Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi are famous for.

Can IIT account for what Koch experienced during his trip?

57:03 Christof Koch on his DMT trip

Koch’s latest book: Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It (2024): https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Christof-K...

Hans Busstra documentary on conscious AI with Bernardo Kastrup, James Lovelock and Roger Penrose:    • Technology as religion | VPRO Document...  

Topics covered during the interview:

I. Deep dive into Integrated Information Theory

00:00 Introduction
05:12 Is Integrated Information Theory a materialist theory?
08:46 Unpacking IIT: intrinsic conscious experience as the starting point
11:05 Feelings have a specific structure
14:37 What is 'intrinsic causal power' and why is it important?
18:38 The difference between being in love and the mass of an object
21:05 Unfolding the intrinsic causal power of a system
21:51 Can you give me the algorithm of the taste of garlic?
25:50 Consciousness is NOT the brain
29:16 The unfolded causal structure of a teapot
31:25 The difference between IIT and panpsychism and the consciousness of bacteria and bees
35:03 Consciousness vs Self-Consciousness
36:18 The combination problem and how to establish the boundary of a (conscious) system
39:23 The experiment of brain bridging
41:50 Split brain experiments
49:45 Brains are nog magical: neuro morphic engineering
52:11 What is a whole and what a part?
55:55 How a larger consciousness would wipe out you and me: the Borg example from Star Trek

II. Christof Koch on his psychedelic experience and metaphysics:

57:03 Christof Koch on his DMT trip
59:58 The ontological shock of psychedelics
1:04:24 How to make sense of the psychedelic experience?
1:08:50 Is IIT idealist?
1:13:56 Are hearts conscious?
1:15:16 On the filter hypothesis
1:17:44 What can IIT say about the psychedelic state and NDE's?
1:25:40 What could a couple billion dollars buy when invested in neuroscience?
1:27:31 On the critique on IIT
1:30:40 Why we have to remain skeptical
1:32:51 'Naive' physicalism
1:34:55 On the placebo effect
1:40:38 The Near Death Experience on 5-MeO-DMT
1:44:26 Will psychedelics change your scientific career
1:47:04 On the mental gravity of the self
1:48:16 Closing remarks

I came here to post this.....and OF COURSE Sci has beat me to it!

Hope all is well buddy! 😃 See there's a lot of changes to the layout here, not even sure if I'm replying correctly 😬 not really checked out the board for a long, long while.

Heard this a few days ago from Koch....was a very satisfying interview. Minutes I think 57 to 70ish are a must listen to imo.

Koch embodies what I've been claiming for a while now; even the smartest neuroscientist or materialist priests will crumble when ACTUALLY faced with the "Divine" mystery directly, when it's no longer just monophasic consciousness theorising and it gets really REAL.

I know a lot of folks on this forum in the past (I don't know if they or the same folks are still here as I haven't scrolled through the recent comments yet, which I will do!) were critical of the idea entheogens or "drugs" could occur "genuine spiritual" experiences, but as somebody who also used to adamantly think that (had numerous "spiritual" experiences from astral projection to kundalini non dual awakenings with no plant or chemical catalysts), I am now certain they can be and near certainly are related to most if not all spiritual phenomena including NDEs.

Endogenous DMT is the key here, imo. But each to their own level of knowledge and experience.

Great to see Ayahuasca knocked Koch on his ass. If I get time later I may come and share my experiences and comparisons with Ayahuasca in the rainforest and other psychedelics, compared to astral projection and kundalini experiences!

Peace ✌🏽

I came here to post this.....and OF COURSE Sci has beat me to it!

Hope all is well buddy! 😃 See there's a lot of changes to the layout here, not even sure if I'm replying correctly 😬 not really checked out the board for a long, long while.

Heard this a few days ago from Koch....was a very satisfying interview. Minutes I think 57 to 70ish are a must listen to imo.

Koch embodies what I've been claiming for a while now; even the smartest neuroscientist or materialist priests will crumble when ACTUALLY faced with the "Divine" mystery directly, when it's no longer just monophasic consciousness theorising and it gets really REAL.

I know a lot of folks on this forum in the past (I don't know if they or the same folks are still here as I haven't scrolled through the recent comments yet, which I will do!) were critical of the idea entheogens or "drugs" could occur "genuine spiritual" experiences, but as somebody who also used to adamantly think that (had numerous "spiritual" experiences from astral projection to kundalini non dual awakenings with no plant or chemical catalysts), I am now certain they can be and near certainly are related to most if not all spiritual phenomena including NDEs.

Endogenous DMT is the key here, imo. But each to their own level of knowledge and experience.

Great to see Ayahuasca knocked Koch on his ass. If I get time later I may come and share my experiences and comparisons with Ayahuasca in the rainforest and other psychedelics, compared to astral projection and kundalini experiences!

Peace ✌🏽

Good to see you posting! I am good, just keeping up the usual Manichean grind against the Archons and their unwitting servants, the Physicalists. 

Would be interesting to see you and @Valmar compare notes! 

It seems to me that IIT as it is covered in this interview (despite claims to the contrary) really is a quasi-physicalist theory of consciousness, and has a very large amount of empirical evidence for the paranormal against it. The interviewee doesn't recognize (and in fact seems to ignore) the entire field of paranormal phenomena and the insights these phenomena give as to the nature of consciousness. In fact the interviewee actually remarks that IIT is a quasi-physicalist theory of consciousness. 

An example of this point of view is the segment of the interview on the well-known split brain operations for epilepsy. This interview interprets the results of this type of surgery in a somewhat materialistic way. No mention is made of the obvious conclusion from these operations that despite some perceptual and motor difficulties the split brain patients retain a full sense of having a central self. This central consciousness of there still being a central self is not impaired by the surgeon's knife. The clear implication of this is that the central self retained by the split brain patients is what has been interpreted as the immaterial soul or spirit temprarily in life inhabiting the physical brain's neurological structures.

See What do we know about the risks of psychedelics? & free documentary What's in My Baggie? There is an incredible danger in thinking you can just find good psychedelics via illegal markets, I can say that from personal experience as I was attacked by a friend who thought LSD could cure his depression.

Pioneering Neuroscientist has Mystical Experience

P. Goff

Christof Koch is a hugely influential figure in the science of consciousness. I was somewhat taken aback at a recent conference when Christof spoke of the recent mystical experience that has changed his life. I couldn’t resist having a chat with Christof about his experience and how it’s impacted him. It was a great conversation, and I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on it.

For more on Christof and his fantastic books, check out his website:

https://christofkoch.com/

Pioneering Neuroscientist has Mystical Experience

P. Goff

Koch is a great example of how a powerful mystical experience can radically alter your worldview. He now believes that all is consciousness, and has an apparent interest in near-death experiences, mystical experiences in general, and psychedelics. He mentions Huxley as an inspiration for his interpretation of his experience ~ the ones related to his use of Mescaline ~ feeling like he, Koch, had experienced Mind-at-Large.

It's ever so curious how a hardcore Materialist Atheist can have such a fundamental and powerful shift by having such an experience.

I have wondered for a long while now... what are mystical experiences? Is the experience of a religious deity? Or is the experience of our own unfettered soul?

I have wondered for a long while now... what are mystical experiences? Is the experience of a religious deity? Or is the experience of our own unfettered soul?

I don't think a specific religious deity need be involved, though experiences seem tailored around something pre-existing, for that individual, but for a different individual it would be tailored in an entirely different way.

Probably mystical involves something other than mundane earthly experience, viewing things as a different reality, whether real or as an illustration. I know in dreams I get information expressed indirectly, for example through beautiful surroundings, and also using symbolic interactions and patterns which communicate something more clearly than words would be able to.

Perhaps the term mystical might be used rather than simply dreamlike, where there is a connection with something more profound, perhaps wiser, perhaps something else, but a sense of connectedness exists during the experience which had not been there before, and after the experience ends, that feeling of connectedness may remain, as though it was either opening a doorway or revealing the existence of something more.

@Valmar, I know from reading some of your own experiences, they are very different to the things I've described. However, I find I cannot readily relate to those experiences, I only try to describe what is familiar to me. The phrase "try to" here expressing a great difficultly I have with something which may be very obvious to me in my mind but does not readily find itself described by words.