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How Consciousness Shapes the Universe | Donald Hoffman

Simon Mundie | Awakening Meets Real Life

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Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman and I explore the deepest questions in philosophy and spirituality: What is reality? We recorded this conversation on 2023, but it is the first time we have released it on YouTube.

Don uses a powerful screen metaphor to explain how our everyday reality — the “movie” of space, time, body, and world — is not the ultimate truth. Instead, beneath every experience is the infinite screen of consciousness, the timeless awareness that allows any possible reality to play out.

Timestamps
05:00 - The Jewel Beetle and Evolutionary Perception
10:00 - Interface Theory of Perception
17:00 - Mathematical Proof We Don't See Reality
24:00 - Space and Time are Doomed
32:00 - Consciousness and the Screen Metaphor
42:00 - One Infinite Consciousness
52:00 - Implications for How We Live
1:02:00 - The Hard Problem of Consciousness
1:12:00 - Purpose and Awakening
1:22:00 - Meditation and Letting Go of Thoughts
1:32:00 - Closing Insights

20 Comments

@raggensen 1 year ago (edited)

I had this dream the other night. A former collegua who passed away some years ago took me to a house were there was a few people. During the dream it became lucid. I understood I was dreaming. I walked around in the room. Touching everything and everything felt solid. Tables, my body, other things I was touching. It was colors. I watched a young boy playing outside. Everything was "real". And so I asked one of the people: Can I stay here if I concentrate on being here. (It obviously was a nice place to be, although I had the feeling that it was this earth.) He said: "No I think you will have to go back." Another interesting aspect is that this person that I met is really the only person I have met in work-life that admitted to be spiritual. This dream brought me one step closer to understand Mr. Hoffman's theories.

@RandomNoise 1 year ago

There is no greater authority on consciousness than Donald Hoffman – every time he speaks it feels like reality itself gets an upgrade. Truly inspiring.

@joannemoore3976 11 months ago

Don you underestimate yourself- I find listening to you very meditative and sometimes just pause and enjoy the silence.

@jociepatrick6170 1 year ago

Love Dr. Hoffman each time I listen to him! Especially love the end as he gets real about life and such! He is awesome!

@OfCourseICan 9 months ago

I love this Man. To get this at 73 is a real gift!
Grateful Aussie.❤

@TaniaTuesday 1 year ago

There is something reassuring about assuming that I am, in truth, infinite intelligence, and that it is only my avatar that has these limitations that I struggle with.

But overall, following this conversation has had a calming effect on me.

Thank you for the video!

@Lisa.Martin_AL 1 year ago

Very illuminating conversation!! Greatly enjoyed this. This ineffable that we are never stops getting more and more mysterious and exciting!

@paddylinehan8559 1 month ago

Pure joy! Everything is in it ... and the two men ... perfect ... the whole thing elevated me ...

@cprinzbach 11 months ago

Funny, the name Chetan Prakash actually means the light of consciousness. What a name to be studying the nature consciousness 😅

@nimim.markomikkila1673 11 months ago

Hoffman is such a gift for the consciousness studies!

@ArlindoPhilosophicalArtist 11 months ago

Thanks for interviewing Donald Hoffman, Simon! Keep doing what you are doing. It's becoming clearer in this day and age that metaphysical idealism is more compelling than physicalism. Hoffman's conscious realism is essentially idealism with a Kantian flavour where we don't see reality as it is (redolent of the noumenon/phenomenon relationship in transcendental idealism). Great work! 😎💙👌🏻

@nomiathotmail 8 months ago

Amazing stuff! Throughout the discussion I kept thinking of Rupert Spira. Then there he goes Mr Hoffman in the end and names him.

@Giorgio-b6u 8 months ago

Watching this video made me think of a book I’ve just read, Nexhara Anatomy of Reality.
It starts from the idea of simulation, but then develops it by going into how it might actually work: layers of agents, dreams, reincarnation, cycles, and resets of reality.
I recommend it to anyone with an open mind toward these kinds of concepts.
Really interesting video compliments

@bharat1876 1 year ago

Simons smile is not a waste and it's infinite greater than this reality 😊

@NofOne2318 1 year ago

Explore Buddhism...it goes even deeper than this. But Hoffman is on the right track for sure!

@SwamiSridattadevSatchitananda 11 months ago (edited)

All appearances are mere illusions of egos
When your ego disappears you will realize the truth of ⭕️=I=♾️ Singular unified field,
When your ego reappears you will actualize the froth of ⭕️<i<♾️ quantum fluctuations.

@zachvanslyke4341 1 year ago

Hoffman is at the final portal before the absolute- that which isn’t. Consciousness is the last veil on the edge of duality/non duality, which are both still subtle perceptions.
“Anything that can be perceived or known cannot be it, therefore discard it.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj
neti neti
🙏

@betel1345 11 months ago

Thank you for this rich conversation

@Discovering_Humanity 1 year ago

Thank you very much Simon and Donald for this talk. It’s super interesting and really a joy to listen to you talking to each other 🙏☺️.

@BillHeilmannfritz 1 year ago

Fantastic discussion I love Don. So humble and I love the way he describes consciousness in the screen. It's great I love long duality and the teachings of Vedanta❤ ❤❤❤