God and Technology with Heidi Campbell
Anagoge Podcast
Can technology save us? That question has been asked since the Industrial Revolution, and Heidi Campbell has spent 30 years studying how religious communities keep answering it. In this conversation, she walks through her Religious Social Shaping of Technology framework, showing that even the most conservative groups do not reject technology outright but filter it through their core values and authority structures. From the kosher cell phone in Israel to Zoom communion during the pandemic, the research reveals a consistent pattern that most popular narratives get wrong. The conversation then...
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The Orthodox Vision of Beauty with Timothy Patitasas
Anagoge Podcast
Timothy Patitsas argues that Western ethics has the order of the transcendentals backwards. Truth and goodness come first in most traditions. But Patitsas, drawing from Greek Orthodox theology, argues that beauty must come first. Not beauty as aesthetics, but beauty as the force that draws you toward God, toward wholeness, and toward a life worth living. In this conversation, we work through what that actually means: how liturgy functions as a structuring force analogous to high-reliability organizations like aircraft carriers, why asceticism follows naturally from eros rather than opposing...
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The Timaeus, Beauty and Tradition with Piero Boitani
Anagoge Podcast
How much of what you read are you actually missing? In this in person conversation recorded in Rome (full video on YouTube), comparative literature scholar Piero Boitani makes the case that most of us are functionally illiterate when it comes to the Western canon, not because we lack access to the texts, but because we lack the layered knowledge required to read them. He demonstrates this with a single word in Tolstoy that links The Death of Ivan Ilyich to Christ's crucifixion through Tolstoy's own Gospel translation, a connection invisible without Russian, Greek, and biblical literacy working...
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The Science & Spirituality of Psychedelics with Michiel van Elk
Anagoge Podcast
This is a in-person recorded podcast. The video is available on YouTube. Michiel van Elk is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Leiden University and head of the PRiSM Lab, where he studies the cognitive neuroscience of religion and psychedelic experiences. In this episode, we take a sober look at the current state of psychedelic science, moving beyond the cultural evangelism and media hype. Michiel critiques the biomedical model of psychedelic therapy, discusses the disappointing effect sizes in recent clinical trials, and highlights methodological issues like "breaking blind"...
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Platonism, Mysticism & Mysteries with Arthur Versluis
Anagoge Podcast
Arthur Versluis is the author of Platonic Mysticism: Contemplative Science, Philosophy, Literature, and Art and a Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. His work bridges the gap between rigorous scholarship and the experiential reality of spiritual traditions. We examine the transformative power of art and its ability to mediate between the material and the transcendent. Versluis highlights the Hudson River School and the concept of "Luminism," explaining how the visual representation of light in nature mirrors the internal experience of mystical illumination....
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Object-Oriented Ontology & the Nature of Reality with Graham Harman
Anagoge Podcast
This conversation explores the depths of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and its radical departure from both analytic and continental philosophy traditions. Graham Harman explains the limitations of "literalism" in science and how great philosophy relies on intuition and rhetoric rather than just rational justification. We discuss the influence of Martin Heidegger’s tool analysis and the difference between "real" and "sensual" objects. We also cover the role of architecture in philosophy and why art may be the only way to touch the reality of things. 00:00 - Introduction to...
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The Self, Consciousness & Relationality with James Cooke
Anagoge Podcast
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...
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Kierkegaard's Life & The Leap Of Faith (Alexander Jech)
Anagoge Podcast
Alexander Jech is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Philosophy Department and a Faculty Affiliate at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His work often explores political philosophy, ethics, and the limits of language. In 2024, he published a new translation of Søren Kierkegaard's influential work, Fear and Trembling. We explore Alexander's fascinating and serendipitous journey into studying Kierkegaard, which began somewhat reluctantly but blossomed into his main philosophical passion. We dive deep into the inseparable link between...
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J.P. Marceau: Love, Metaphysics & Miracles
Anagoge Podcast
Jean-Philippe Marceau is a writer and podcaster associated with The Symbolic World, often working with Jonathan Pageau. With an academic background in mathematics, theoretical computer science, and philosophy of mind, his new book addresses the contemporary "meaning crisis" through the lens of Christian metaphysics. In this episode, we explore the core arguments of JP's book, "Post-Reductionist Christianity." They explore the limitations of reductive materialism, the importance of synthesizing insights from thinkers like Jonathan Pageau and John Vervaeke, and the structure of a...
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John Cottingham – The Return of the Sacred
Anagoge Podcast
John Cottingham is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Renowned for his work on Descartes, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of religion, he has authored over thirty books, including The Spiritual Dimension, Why Believe?, and Philosophy of Religion: Towards a More Humane Approach. His scholarship bridges analytic rigor with a deep concern for the emotional and spiritual dimensions of human life. His latest book is In Search of the Soul: A Philosophical Essay:...
info_outlineThis 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