The Self, Consciousness & Relationality with James Cooke

This was the first real-life episode of the Anagoge Podcast, recorded in Portugal. The video of the conversation is available on YouTube. James Cooke is a neuroscientist, writer, and contemplative practitioner whose work bridges neuroscience, philosophy, and spirituality. In his recent book The Dawn of Mind, he proposes a bold reframing of consciousness—placing it not in the brain alone, but within the deeper relational dynamics of life itself.

 

In this episode, we explore James’ formative mystical experience as a teenager and how it set him on a lifelong journey to understand consciousness through science rather than in opposition to it. We unpack his core thesis of non-dual naturalism, the idea that reality is fundamentally relational, not made up of separate objects, and that consciousness itself may be best understood as an embodied epistemic relation between organism and world.

 

We discuss the illusion of the self, the role of suffering in revealing the nature of reality, and how insights from contemplative practice intersect with recent developments in neuroscience and quantum physics. Along the way, we grapple with the philosophical implications of groundlessness, the nature of ethics in a world without selves, and the limits of scientific explanation.

0:00 Start

0:45 James Cooke's Background 

2:29 Why a Mystical Experience Led to a Scientific Path

5:53 A Broad Overview of the Book's Thesis: Non-Dual Naturalism

9:52 The Epistemic Weight of Mystical Experiences

17:02 The "No-Self" Claim and the Groundlessness of Reality

23:48 How the Infinite Nature of Reality is Relevant to Everyday Life

29:32 The Link Between "No-Self" and Ethics

39:03 The Nuances of Reducing Suffering: Utilitarianism vs. Values

45:57 Defining Life and Consciousness

50:49 How This Perspective Addresses the Hard Problem of Consciousness

1:06:15 Comparing Model-Building in Life vs. AI (LLMs)

1:09:19 The Influence of Kant and the Problem of Anti-Realism

1:15:52 The Power of Stories, Symbols, and Conventional Reality

1:23:35 The Role of Value Systems vs. Survival in Predictive Processing

1:33:41 The Problem of The One and the Many

1:45:13 Exploring Duality

1:48:56 James Future Work

Transcript article: https://tiagovf.medium.com/the-self-consciousness-relationality-54a037bb60a1

My new book, In Search of the Infinite – A Psychedelic Memoir, is a personal and philosophical account written over seven years, tracing my journey through over a dozen psychedelic experiences. It explores the depths of human experience: suffering, beauty, doubt, and wonder, through the lens of altered states and introspection, gradually moving from a strictly rational worldview toward a renewed engagement with religion. Blending memoir with philosophical reflection, it explores a sincere, evolving search for truth and meaning.

 

Paperback/Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/8MM0JhE

Free Digital Version: https://psychedelicmemoir.com/

 

If you would like to connect with me on Instagram, you can do so at @tiagobooks: https://www.instagram.com/tiagobooks/

 

The intro song is by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril, from the album 'Impossible Parade'.
Website: https://liefsjostrom.com/
Album: https://liefsjostrom.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-parade