Bernard Carr, cosmologist and friend of Hawking, on consciousness and parapsychology

Our brains do not produce consciousness, they ’filter’ it and consciousness is related to the higher dimensions in string theory. In this thought provoking conversation, distinguished Professor of mathematics and astronomy Bernard Carr explains his theory of consciousness and psi-phenomena. This video has human-created English subtitles, so don’t forget to click on the ’CC’ button below the video to enable them. 00:00 Introduction 05:02 How did you get involved with parapsychology? 09:41 Bernard on trying to weigh a soul... 13:50 Is psychical research science? 16:03 The Enfield poltergeist claim 25:59 Are Psi phenomena real? 26:58 On the importance of true skepticism 28:55 Where are we in studying these phenomena scientifically? 34:44 Is having a scientific background a hindrance or a help when it comes to studying these phenomena? 38:55 In what sense are most scientists not ’believing’ the phenomena? 43:54 On a post-materialist science 44:38 How does your notion of time relate to psi phenomena? 53:16 What is the relationship between time and consciousness? 1:01:10 Is time real? 1:04:20 What is the ’specious present’? 1:06:38 You might argue planet Earth is conscious 1:09:16 On the experience of time when falling 1:11:56 When the specious present seems to expand 1:15:51 How does the concept of the specious present explain certain psychic phenomena? 1:19:11 Natalia on the slowing down of time when falling off a mountain 1:23:17 Bernard on the movies Inception and Interstellar 1:24:44 Is time just a dial on our dashboard of perception? 1:27:25 When you either experience an eternal now or an eternal always... 1:28:00 On experiencing the transcendence of space and time 1:30:07 How do you interact with the world when you are in a different specious present? 1:32:53 How athletes are successful due to a specious present that is slowed down 1:33:58 What if our specious present is expanding? 1:37:02 Bernards view on the fine tuning problem 1:41:11 On the multiverse 1:42:47 Is there something before the Big Bang? 1:47:34 Hawking’s theory about the origin of time 1:50:59 There must be a genesis of the universe, right? 1:52:06 God and the Big Bang 1:54:44 What is consciousness to you? 1:57:12 Are there actually ’laws’ of physics? 2:01:32 Is a final theory possible? 2:05:08 How to fit consciousness - per definition the first-person experience - into science, which is about the third-person experience? 2:11:16 How to make a new physics that accommodates consciousness testable? Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.