[Music]
all right uh so we're GNA talk about
Consciousness and I want to ask you guys
uh how many of you have had some sort of
transcendent experience uh and what I
mean by that
is you know a near-death
experience psychedelic experience a
religious experience through prayer or
meditation uh there's there's all of
these different ways that you can gain
insights deeper insights uh through some
sort
of non-ordinary State of
Consciousness and so why am I talking
about this at a at a hacker conference
um I think when
uh when I was about 16 years old uh I I
tried LSD for the first time
and I I remember walking through my town
in the middle of the night I just like
looking around at stuff and I was um
walking through and looking at the
ground and the concrete and the houses
and all this stuff and I was just like I
had this this Revelation that that uh
God gave us everything that we need and
like God didn't want that there God
didn't want all this stuff and uh God
gives us everything and I'm not
particularly a you know big religious or
God person but somehow I had this
Revelation that everything that I need I
already have and I and I I kept that
with me then you know I'm not like a I I
don't think that we should bulldoze
houses or you know get rid of all the
concrete the point that I came away with
was like I already always have whatever
I need and and that was a really great
insight for me and um oh thank you and
so
the the
reason I'm not getting it there we go
there we
go I can I can
right don't look I I had this up too
long I guess um so why are we talking
about this at hacker conference and I
think that the insights that you can get
from these trans Transcendent
experiences
are really powerful and they can help
you live more peaceful lives and I think
if if we all had these tools to to to
have these experiences and to gain these
insights I think that you get this
deeper understanding of um you know what
it is to be human and interact with
other humans and so
so that's that's that's what we're
talking about here so today we'll talk
about um what is consciousness we'll
talk about a couple different
definitions we'll use one primarily for
this talk and we'll talk about how
technology frames our conscious
experience we'll talk about uh Altered
States Of
Consciousness and then we'll talk a
little bit about hacking our own mind
body States uh there's a an author I
read recently uh Thomas Roberts talks
about Mind Body States rather than
States Of Consciousness because a little
bit more clear because Consciousness
everyone kind of talks about thinks
about different things versus Mind Body
States is
um your your mind it's a little bit more
uh self like understandable it's more of
a toogy I guess like it's your mind body
State uh and then Consciousness as a
network uh just a a theory that uh I
wanted to uh put out there and uh
discuss with some uh likeminded
hackers um so what is consciousness so
when when people talk about
Consciousness a lot of times people will
talk about like self-consciousness like
being aware of being aware uh it's a
kind of a uniquely human thing um
there's you know some arguments about
you know
whether uh monkeys or dolphins or alant
also have
self-consciousness but uh there's a
philosophical idea um there's this guy
Thomas Nagel who came out with the paper
in 1974 and he talks
about um there's something when when an
organism is consciousness there's
something that it's like to be that that
organism so he uses the organism of a
bat so he says a bat and he uses a bat
because of you know they have a pretty
unique sense of being in the world use
sonar echolocation to you know
understand where things are and how they
move around and fly and all that kind of
stuff um but there's what what he argues
is that there's something that it's like
to have that subjective experience of
being a bat and so that's the definition
and I like that definition because it
kind of puts an objective sense and what
Consciousness is for a very subjective
thing and so for most of this talk we
use the there's something that it's
like uh qualification to talk about
consciousness
um so Consciousness in technology so
what I like to think about is like what
it's like to be a human Now versus 100
years ago is very different because of
times we live in and the technology we
use and I think
about uh you know some of the
technologies that were invented like the
printing press for example was a a big
uh
technology advancement that allowed
people to communicate and build on other
people's ideas ideas and we've been
doing that ever since the printing press
and then we had the internet come along
and and it's like the printing press on
steroids and um I think that as we
progress I mean eventually we might have
neural link where we can update our uh
our our ideas to everyone else that's
updated to the you know so then you have
the singularity where where everyone's
like has all of the information all the
time and and I I just I don't know
I think it's interesting to think about
because you kind of see the progression
of how information is uh pass through
people and what that does for our
Consciousness and so um most recently
everyone's you know using AI this uh all
these slides are brought to you by mid
Journey um and uh even this talk so when
I when I started thinking about doing a
talk I was like write a Consciousness a
talk about Consciousness hacking for a
hacker conference and you know J gbd did
an okay job one of the things that that
I like about this is like they gave me
this thing about Naro feedback which you
know a lot of the stuff I was going to
talk about I thought about talking about
and uh Naro feedback I didn't really
know a lot about so it gave me a prompt
to like think about okay what's what's
this neuro feedback about so I learned
more about neuro feedback you can have
these different devices that
um uh you can hook hook up hook up
yourself to like an EEG M machine or you
can like uh track your heart rate and by
looking at the the stats you can lower
or higher it by just by looking and so
that's the feedback that you get that's
pretty interesting but uh had I not
asked chat GPT to write me a talk I
wouldn't even thought to talk about that
right so it's I don't know I think it's
kind of cool um I'm sure everyone's I've
heard some it's it's funny uh the
stories I've heard about people before
this talk I'm like man I wish I would
have put that into my talk because
there's some some crazy uh uh chat GPT
hacking prompt engineering hacking out
there that's uh uh fascinating but for
another talk another time
um Altered States uh so talked a little
bit about Altered
States
um yeah I mean I had this I had this
experience one time um this was another
LSD experience where
I I was hanging out with my friends and
and then we all kind of went our
separate ways and I went down and I I
sat down at my
bed and I had this experience where I
could sit I I was like imagining myself
sitting down in a desk and I could pull
out a drawer full of memories I could
take out the memories I could look at
them I could re-experience them the
conversations that I had um there were
movies that I watched and I and there
not memories that are top of minded at
all there were somewhere in there and I
could just pick them up and look at him
and re-experience him and then I had
this experience where I was like I was
like going going through a tunnel and
then there was like a lot of pressure
and then I came out and there's all this
film and slime and I was like I was like
experiencing my birth and it was the
weirdest thing and uh a few years later
I I came across this guy stanoff gra uh
who wrote this book called the
holotropic mind and stanoff gra is
a psychiatrist who is given the most uh
LSD uh to patients going through like
um
uh you know there like psychology
assisted uh LSD sessions basically and
he would sit with them for like eight
hours a day and he'd like do two of them
a day sometimes so he'd be like 16 hours
just sitting by these patients and he
learned a lot of things and he had
basically this what he called a mind map
different than Dr K's mind map um but it
it was these four different levels so
there's the abstract and aesthetic your
thoughts and your perceptions to kind of
top of Mind stuff psycho dnamic kind of
your personal memory stuff and then
there's the perinatal the birth memories
and there's a lot of people that had
these birth memories and Trauma at Birth
and there's four different um levels
within the paranal of like coming out of
the womb like right before you come out
of the womb being in the womb and then
coming out of the womb and um a lot of
people get stuck in in the trauma from
their birth and they'll come throughout
their whole life and I thought that was
fascinating because I was like I
experienced that and so did a lot of
other people so there's uh something
really interesting about that and then
there's transpersonal so beyond self
space time uh there is a lot of people
that had experiences of being like other
uh beings other animals like whales or
the experience of being a great Sequoia
tree and the relationship that they had
with
um with fire because apparently greata
trees they they need fire for their uh
Pine codes to expand and then uh and
then have the seeds come out and then
grow so like they need the fire to clear
the area and then have the pine cones
actually release the seeds and then and
then grow so it's kind of a LoveHate
relationship because the fire also kills
the trees so uh I thought that was
really interesting that that people
could have these types of experiences
and um
so some of these Transcendent catalysts
uh near-death
experiences um there's there's a you
know there's no there's a there's a book
that I read about a a doctor that saw
these near-death experiences over and
over again and and people would explain
things to him that they couldn't have
known but they had this outof body
experience when they almost died and
they saw they saw this guy they saw him
have like a little bit of ketchup on his
shirt and he's like there's no way you
could have known that you're you're
you're dead um so he started like
researching this and and found out about
a lot of people have these experiences
they have these outo body experiences
when they almost die and then they come
back uh religious spiritual experiences
I remember one time I was at a wedding
and uh my wife was in the wedding and I
didn't know anyone at the wedding and I
W up talking to the priest for a while
and I asked him why did you become a
priest and he told me this whole story
about how God told him to become a
priest and I was like well that's
interesting and I didn't know if he was
a crazy person or if he had but I think
you know he could have had this
experience that God was telling him to
be a priest and so
um dreams there's a a lot of you know
insights that people get from dreams
there's this sect of dream yoga too
where um people can learn
uh these different levels of yoga within
their dreams and I I just think that
sounds
fascinating uh psychedelic experiences
talked about a few of those uh
meditations auto body
experiences uh breath work stof grath
also started this it's called holotropic
breath work it's kind of like um
hyperventilating Wim Hoff does a similar
type thing um but that can get you into
this altered state of consciousness
where you can gain a lot of these
insights
and then Shamanism is like the the OG of
of all of these things and um there's a
anthropologist by the name of Michael
Harner that studied all these different
shamanistic uh cultures throughout the
world and he found like a common thing
that they all have is some sort of
drumming there's Al there's always some
sort of percussion that happens whether
there's some sort of um something that
they ingest or don't there's always like
some sort of drumming and sometimes
there's dancing and
um so these are some of the
can
yes yes
exactly so this is a a little um a
project that I've been working on it's
called Uh Beyond da uh for it's it's a
community of
people that is exploring Consciousness
through ART science direct experience
experience and so it's
a it's a web 3 centralized autonomous
organization using uh nfts that we get
through insights gained at through these
different organizations studying Cutting
Edge Of Consciousness so the Monroe
Institute is one of them and the Monroe
Institute was founded by this guy Bob
Monroe
who uh he developed this this uh program
audio program using B narrow beats so
there's like one tone in one ear One
Tone in the other that's slightly
different so it kind of creates this
like w sound in your brain and he he
calls it hemisync and so it like sinks
up both sides of the brain and there's
there's these meditations that go along
with this kind of like this this sound
that's going on and there's these
different levels of consciousness that
you can get to and so uh we did an
exploratory thing like what we want to
do is send like a bunch of artists to
the Monroe Institute to go through their
Day program where they're doing like six
meditations a day and you kind of really
get into it and so we did one uh just
like a couple weeks and like every day
we would do a meditation and we kind of
journal and kind of get into the flow of
state of things and then um so my
experience one so one time so the idea
was that like once we kind of got used
to doing these things um we would go
into the state and uh come up with a
piece of artwork that we wanted to make
and so I had this experience where
um I
was I was sitting at a beach and I was
looking out way out into the ocean and I
saw this this house and um I teleported
to this house I like I went over there
and then I looked in the windows and
there's kind of this desert scene that
was like kind of cartoony and stuff and
I went through the house and I was in
this desert scene and then I saw the
thing that I wanted to make which was
this pyramid that was kind of like a
purple bottom and it had had a hand and
then like a glowing um pyramid at the
top of it it was cut off like this and
and to me this represented knowledge and
so I tried to make it and and it
looks okay it doesn't look great or
anything but then I took that and uh I
put it through mid journey and I found
some these are all okay too but it's
kind of cool I'm like this is this is
cool there's this technology that gave
me the Insight maybe it did maybe it
didn't maybe it's psychosomatic I don't
know but somehow I came up with this
this idea to make a pyramid with a hand
under it that you know had this glowing
orb that's knowledge and then I put it
through mid journey and it came up with
some other crazy stuff and
um yeah I don't know I just I think
about this stuff and I'm like this is
this is this is kind of
cool and it brings me to this concept of
Mind apps since this guy
Thomas uh Robert talks about
um
these different states of Consciousness
he calls them mind Mind Body States and
he's got this multi-state theory that
like the State of Consciousness that
we're normally in our waking state where
we're talking interacting we're highly
caffeinated going to work doing the
stuff that we do um that's not the only
state and there's these other states
that you can get into and you can get
insights from and he talks about mind
apps being able to kind of stack them on
top of each other so you could use like
you know meditation and neuro feedback
or neuro feedback and meditation and
some psychedelic and you could come up
with all these different recipes
probably an infinite number of recipes
to come up with different insights about
Consciousness itself so he talks about
like using this as a tool for philosophy
and psychology and like we can create
new models by having and utilizing these
multi-state theories and I just thought
yeah we should do that that's a good
idea and um
and I think about some of the stuff that
Stan off gra and some experiences that
I've had is uh that you know
Consciousness might be a network or
there's these ideas that like there's
pan psychism like the idea like the
Earth is conscious or there's um
idealism that is everything is within
Consciousness and uh I think that
there's something to that
and I think um this is to me this is one
of the most fascinating things to study
because nobody understands it um what's
up I think so
I think so was like there's like the
guys that just won the Nobel Peace Prize
about like proving that the they could
predict the the spinning of the
particles non-locally right so they
could like and so so what does that mean
yeah like what is this mind stuff what
is this Quantum material that
um it sort of feels that way and I feel
like things are just kind of getting
weird and like we're kind of like
discovering this stuff right now and
it's uh I don't know it's fascinating to
me and I don't know much about Quantum
stuff so I can't I can't speak much to
it but yeah I think there's something
like that that's going on so
um so I think um yeah why why does this
matter and and I think we're we're
living in weird times there's social
tensions there's climate
uh disasters there's AI that could take
over the world and we have to stop it
now
right
um and so I think having a deeper level
of understanding of what this experience
is can really help us and evolve and
move forward in a peaceful way
um and I think finding the peace within
ourselves is the first step and and so I
think using some of these
tools um in the right way I'm not saying
like disclaimer like don't go out and
just do a bunch of drugs because that's
that's not a good idea
um yeah I don't know it's like but then
when do we lose our autonomy and like
become a cyborg and I don't know it's a
weird it's a weird thing to think
about
yeah what's that
yeah we are the driver
yeah
yeah but I think yeah so so anyway so um
so I I think you know one of the calls
to action I guess I didn't put this in
here oh I'm shutting down I don't know
what it is um so anyways this is my
contact info so if you I don't know you
want to take a picture of it and you
want to connect with me on anything on
this stuff the the Beyond website's
there uh if you want to check that out I
think there might be an email we have we
haven't we haven't launched it yet but
um if you want to put your email in
we'll connect with you that's a be
y nd.
us um and then I was also thinking about
and if anyone's interested in this uh
there's there's this um Glo I don't know
if it's Global but at least in the
United States there's conscious as
hackers and there's people that meet and
talk about the stuff and and um they
have it throughout the states there's
not one in Milwaukee but if we I'd be
interested in starting one in Milwaukee
if uh if uh if people wanted to start
one we could start a zoom one yeah I
like I like the inperson piece but we
got to get Dr K in so we'll do
Z
so
um what do you
got what what are the books what's your
what's your best recommendation there
some books hacking mind hacking your
mind
yeah MH
MH fasting yeah I didn't put fasting in
here that's a I've yeah I've never
fasted more than I've done it like 24
hours what you
got
and guess
question yeah and I think about this um
there there's kind of of like a theory
that like whenever humans invent
something in one part of the world like
they'll invent it in another part of the
world too so like once one human figures
it out another one they've done the same
study with rats and mazes too um so is
that what you're asking about like that
type of
thing so I yeah I think that's possible
I think there's something there but like
we we don't have like a a map or like an
understanding of what that is
and
like the sound of one hand
clapping if you guys like this talk make
the sound of one hand
[Laughter]
clapping uh
uh any other
questions cool well if you guys want to
start a you know Consciousness uh
hacking thing um you know find me
connect with me all me and K are GNA Dr
K are going to start this thing so if uh
yeah I'm
uh anyone interested like if you have
hand up we got a couple people okay so
maybe we could start a list or
um
know
yeah maybe so if people are interested
I'll put a piece of paper up here if you
want to put your name and your email
address um we'll get in touch we'll do
it the oldfashioned way yeah otherwise
you know you guys aren't going to take
action after tonight you're going to you
know go party too hard at the video
games and forget all about
this hey thank you it's brought to you
by mid Journey AI brought to you by
AI
all right uh cool well thanks guys for
uh coming to the Late Night show
appreciate uh the uh yeah you guys
attention and your questions and
engagement it's awesome so um I'll I'll
put a piece of paper here if you want to
put a name and a email address we'll
start a Consciousness hacking
thing thanks
guys