Famous Neuroscientist on 5-MeO-DMT and Integrated Information Theory | Christof Koch

In his latest book, neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch describes how he, during a psychedelic experience on 5-MeO-DMT, felt that he was one with the universe. Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra interviews Koch on his new book and Integrated Information Theory (IIT), the scientific theory of consciousness Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi are famous for. Can IIT account for what Koch experienced during his trip?

57:03 Christof Koch on his DMT trip

Koch’s latest book: Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It (2024): https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Christof-K...

Hans Busstra documentary on conscious AI with Bernardo Kastrup, James Lovelock and Roger Penrose:    • Technology as religion | VPRO Documentary  

Topics covered during the interview:

I. Deep dive into Integrated Information Theory

00:00 Introduction
05:12 Is Integrated Information Theory a materialist theory?
08:46 Unpacking IIT: intrinsic conscious experience as the starting point
11:05 Feelings have a specific structure
14:37 What is 'intrinsic causal power' and why is it important?
18:38 The difference between being in love and the mass of an object
21:05 Unfolding the intrinsic causal power of a system
21:51 Can you give me the algorithm of the taste of garlic?
25:50 Consciousness is NOT the brain
29:16 The unfolded causal structure of a teapot
31:25 The difference between IIT and panpsychism and the consciousness of bacteria and bees
35:03 Consciousness vs Self-Consciousness
36:18 The combination problem and how to establish the boundary of a (conscious) system
39:23 The experiment of brain bridging
41:50 Split brain experiments
49:45 Brains are nog magical: neuro morphic engineering
52:11 What is a whole and what a part?
55:55 How a larger consciousness would wipe out you and me: the Borg example from Star Trek

II. Christof Koch on his psychedelic experience and metaphysics:

57:03 Christof Koch on his DMT trip
59:58 The ontological shock of psychedelics
1:04:24 How to make sense of the psychedelic experience?
1:08:50 Is IIT idealist?
1:13:56 Are hearts conscious?
1:15:16 On the filter hypothesis
1:17:44 What can IIT say about the psychedelic state and NDE's?
1:25:40 What could a couple billion dollars buy when invested in neuroscience?
1:27:31 On the critique on IIT
1:30:40 Why we have to remain skeptical
1:32:51 'Naive' physicalism
1:34:55 On the placebo effect
1:40:38 The Near Death Experience on 5-MeO-DMT
1:44:26 Will psychedelics change your scientific career
1:47:04 On the mental gravity of the self
1:48:16 Closing remarks

Copyright © 2024-2025 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.
www.essentiafoundation.org