Iain McGilchrist, 'We Need to Act'

Whenever I listen to Iain McGilchrist, I feel I have returned home to safety and sanity. This is a nugget of an interview teeming with enlivened information, speaking right to the heart of the sickness in our society today! What a relief. Thank you 🙏🏼

This man is a very rare mix of heart and mind.

If someone as sensible and gentle as Dr McGilchrist is sounding the alarm on the direction of civilization then we really are in peril

McGilchrist is a bonafide genius. 'The Matter With Things' is the greatest work of philosophy of the 21st century imo, and 'The Master and His Emissary' is also an absolutely excellent book and extremely accessible to the layman. He and Ken Wilber are the only two thinkers I've read in modern times that have been able to show a way out of scientific materialism, postmodern relativism, and other nihilistic modern ideologies without recourse to some long, forgotten golden age. Not that I don't sympathize with traditionalists who want to go back to some golden age, as the modern world is insane. But I think the way out of this clusterfuck of a civilization is through, not back.

“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” ~ Plato

I have been a student of Dr.McGilchrist for many years, starting with an in depth study, reading and rereading, "The Master and His Emissary'", and now a many months examination of "The Matter with Things." The current global context, with catastrophic loss of planetary habitability, rising totalitarian impulses in the political realm, and huge disparities in the economic realm to name just a few of our problems urgently asks these questions; "Who are we and why are we behaving in this globally self-destructive way?" My opinion is that Dr. McGilchrist could well be the most relevant and greatest teacher of our age regarding the much needed answers to these questions. Just watching this video for the last hour has shifted my awareness to an expansive realm where many of the most helpful insights into the way in which humans inhabit their worlds are connected and pointing to a possible transformation, or rebalancing of human potential to mitigate our global free-fall into the abyss of self-destructive ignorance.

Wow! Within the first minutes he's addressing one of the most important public goods: FREE SPEECH ! This is so important and a shame that people don't value it. Although it cannot even be bought with money...

"A mind that is learning is constantly growing." Thank for having Iain McGilchrist on. I have all three of his books and am still listening to his lectures. Thank you both again.❤ Dr. McGilchrist has had an extraordinary education that was different and he made choices outside the box. With the deepest appreciation and admiration for his wisdom he imparts to those who listen.❤

A profound and timely warning from the wisdom and brilliance of Iain McGilchrist.

This is stirring. I feel a sense of enormous relief, all over. I know so many women like myself who alternate between a constant state of anguished helplessness and furious anger at what the left is doing to our country, to our children, to our culture. Evenen here in Charlottesville, Virginia, a small, intimidating group is destroying our local monuments which have graced our historic university town for two centuries. But thanks to Dr. McGilchrist I have stepped back. I have listened to other lectures and sent them to others, but this 42 minutes opens up a world of understanding. If anything it addresses my own anger, and has offered me a way to understand and navigate my way around such destructive personalities -- some of which are relatives. Thank you, Dr. McGilchrist, for your profound, life-changing research, and your passion to spread your discoveries.

The horrific true of this world's moment is that even those who sees clearly what's the problem is, can't see a way out of it. We may need to go through a chaotic and convoluted time to somewhere in the future find a new balance.

Free Thought is the seed... Free Speech is the flower 🌹

Iain is clearly a prophet and a guide. Extremely grateful for his passion, wisdom, and love of humans and life. Ways we can rebalance: Nature immersion: this is the right brain context in which humans have always existed, and in which the left brain grew and flourished. And in it's absence, the left brain has overrun not only the right brain but the emotions and the body as well. Play: doing things for the sheer delight of the experience. Elicits our child-like capacities. Includes spontaneous self-expression, especially authentic movement when dancing, which is a way to fully embody being free, and is also great authenticity training. Having a deep time perspective about the evolutionary nature of universe and the Earth, that is the context of Existence. Humility naturally arises, as well as a deep connection to our magnificence as a part of this glorious Creation. Profound gratitude for all our ancestors and earlier life forms that have provided an unbroken chain of life that has made our existence possible.

When iain speaks out, you know you are required to carefully listen.

I fully agree. We used to learn clear thinking at school for our awareness of the dangers of language, and debating and argumentative essays to develop our own oral and written persuasive skills. These lessons gave me an awe for the power of communication and the difference between information/facts and the various ways in which information is presented. Such training conveyed an understanding of the possibility of being fooled and manipulated. We learned to search for the truth by recognising faulty logic and emotional appeals, and read between the lines. It seems few people are trying to assess claims for BS, these days. Are thinking and speaking skills out of vogue, or discernment itself?

Caution with calling synchronicities easily, but I was only this morning debating if I should purchase Ian's McGilchrist's new book 'The Matter with Things'. Excited to listen to this conversation, and it looks like I found my book-buying answer - excellent mind, important voice. Thank you.

McGilchrists ability to calmly and crisply illuminate the darkness he sees is inspiring. Perhaps however one needs distribute the 'blame' beyond the 'we' that is legally referred to as a "natural person" and to deeply question the status of the "corporate person" (company). Corporate Persons have many human rights plus privelages not available to the natural person and most powerfully exercised via scale and legal shielding, with special additional legal shielding for companies that are banks and in particular central banks (and some transnational entities). Although corporate persons are peopled by humans—with two hemispheres—the behaviour of corporate persons often looks like the behaviour of a natural person with right hemisphere damage. And it is these behaviours whose impact dominates our world.

The internet has made a lot of people crazy. Sadly everyone is looking online for the answers when in actual fact the solution is offline…

Such a fantastic discussion - as always. McGilchrist is a fascinating human being. Thanks for bringing discussions of hope, compassion and deep understanding.

I've held a strong feeling from an early age that people should try to live in one place for MOST of their lives. The connection to place and belonging builds a sense of responsibility and continuity with a part of the planet, a nation, a state, a city, a suburb a street and a home. The novelty of nomadic vagrancy and constant movement is a contributor to our disconnect from place and desire to assert change on each location we move to. With burgeoning population, it has become difficult to remain in place and not be enticed to other places by profit or novel motivations.