Christof Koch on the Cosmic Toad

What happens when one of the world’s leading neuroscientists has a mystical experience that upends his understanding of reality?

In the 1990s, Christof Koch helped launch the modern science of consciousness, searching for the neural basis of subjective experience. A committed materialist, Koch believed brain science would explain how conscious experience is generated.  

Then several profound psychedelic experiences changed his metaphysical beliefs. “It was like an earthquake,” he says.

In this conversation, Koch reflects on how those mind-bending experiences transformed his deepest assumptions about mind and matter, and whether the cosmos itself might have purpose. He talks about the power and the limits of science, and why he’s come to see consciousness not as a byproduct of matter, but as something far more fundamental, perhaps the fabric of reality itself.

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:05 Pursuing Ultimate Truth
00:09:40 Into the Psychedelic Void
00:16:00 The Loss of Self
00:20:55 What Science Cannot Explain

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• Personal website 
• Allen Institute
• TTBOOK: "Your Brain on Shrooms"

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Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at https://wondercabinetproductions.com, where you can subscribe to the podcast and our newsletter.