Hosted by Lebanese artist Nadia Hassan, Essentia Readings podcasts high-quality but accessible essays on philosophy of mind, metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, mythology, foundations of physics and much more. This podcast is produced by Essentia Foundation (www.essentiafoundation.org).
Today’s article sheds light on the personal journey of one of the world’s most renowned authors, and the impact of idealism on his development and growth. It shows us what joins humanity together in its suffering, but also what joins it in the potential for collective healing. The power is within all of us, quietly showing us the way.
19 Mar 2023
The march towards Eastern idealism
Today’s article dives into the Western world’s history with consciousness and its still evolving relationship with this subject. It goes on to chart a seeming progression within this region towards Eastern idealist thought, while drawing what the author sees as key similarities and differences in these far-flung disciplines.
8 Jan 2023
How can you be me? The answer is time
Today’s article explains, in a very elegant manner, how universal consciousness can indeed present as individual alters, simultaneously. With the help of a few real life examples, a powerful metaphor takes shape, allowing us to visualize how dissociation fundamentally occurs, and how the interplay of our individual perspectives is basically self-talk, from across timelines.
13 Nov 2022
Whirlpools in Universal Consciousness
The article I’ll be reading today unpacks what makes a good metaphor, why metaphors are so valuable to our pursuit of Truth, and invites us to appreciate the simple elegance and explanatory power of one metaphor in particular, favored both in Eastern and Western thought.
2 Oct 2022
The Copernican Revolution of the human mind
Today’s article calls for a revolution. And like a number of revolutions in history, it is an attempt to dethrone a controversial king; one the author thinks has long outstayed his welcome, and led us all rather astray. He presents the way to our freedom, and the promise of truths therein.
28 Aug 2022
There is no personal self
Today’s article challenges our currently held notion of self and how we typically define experience, as well as consciousness itself. It argues that the concept of an isolated self is an illusion, and drawing from the Buddhist teachings, illustrates what constitutes consciousness, and how we actually experience - and relate to - ourselves, the world, and others.
24 Jul 2022
Dissociation and complexity: A psychiatrist’s perspective
The article I’ll be reading today is a master class on dissociation, from the field of psychiatry. It breaks down the complexity of this phenomenon, and shows us that it is a much more common process in life than is generally thought. Furthermore, when observed in the realm of mind and then extrapolated beyond to consciousness as a whole, it allows for a better understanding of the fundamental premise at the heart of analytic idealism.
19 Jun 2022
Contact with universal consciousness
Today’s article examines our decidedly limited mental representation of the world, and how it is fundamentally linked to the systems of meaning available to us, to our perceptual constructs. It lays out incredible data to show just how much and in how many ways our perception can be manipulated, and the role we often take in our own delusion. It goes on to explore the broader semiotic power of deeper levels of consciousness and how they could play an important role in communications with alie...
12 May 2022
Is the human brain a model of the universe?
The article I’ll be reading today presents documented similarities between the human brain and the cosmos, and poses the question: can either be modeled after the other? This very exciting possibility might allow as of yet undiscovered truths about both realms, and bring us closer to the Holy Grail of modern physics, the Theory of Everything.
10 Apr 2022
The Three Minds: A framework beyond biopsychosocial medicine
The article I’ll be reading today shines an important light on the field of medicine, allopathic medicine in particular, and questions the largely biomedical approach underpinning mainstream practice. It argues for a more connected and balanced view, one in which the role of mind is paramount in understanding illness, and the process of healing.
2 Feb 2022
The ethics of Idealism
Welcome back everyone! Today’s article is a fascinating deep dive into the subject of morality and the neurological mechanics of our joint human condition. It is an eye-opening presentation of how we actually relate to each other, and what this could mean for the future of our collective consciousness. Join me, for a fittingly wholesome start to the year.
12 Dec 2021
Re-thinking identity: Children’s experiences of self
In the best episode of 'Essentia Readings' yet, Nadia Hassan reads Dr. Donna Thomas's 'Re-thinking identity: Children’s experiences of self.' Nadia also introduces us to her young niece, a child who very matter-of-factly states that she is aware, during sleep, of the fact that she is asleep. This suggests that our original, natural sense of self and consciousness, before culture tells us how to think about both, is much different than our adult understanding.
7 Nov 2021
Near-Death Experiences during cardiac arrest
Today’s article delves into a phenomenon that has been largely dismissed. One’s position regarding these events tends to encapsulate a person’s view on the fundamental nature of life, as it deals with its apparent end: death, or a close brush with it. We’ll be looking at the scientific research into the phenomena of NDE’s (Near Death Experiences) and what this can tell us about human consciousness as a whole.
17 Oct 2021
What is consciousness?
Today’s article poses the million-dollar question: “What is consciousness”? A much debated matter among academics, scientists, and thinkers the world over for centuries, but the burning curiosity germinates in us all and from quite a young age, as soon as we start to wonder who we are, why we’re here, and every other run of the mill existential question. Answers to these questions have been attempted by the religious, the atheist, sometimes by the downright eccentric. Many people look to scie...
12 Sept 2021
Communicating through the 'collective unconscious'
The article I’ll be presenting today is by an author whose work has been focused, in part, on the psychology of consciousness and psycho-semantics, problems of the unconscious, altered states of consciousness, ethnic and cross-cultural psychology, and the philosophical issues of psychology. In what I’ll be reading, he explores our current understanding of the collective unconscious, how it functions, the value it presents for humanity, and what we can unlock if we are able to tune into it mor...
15 Aug 2021
Seeing things: The daimonic nature of reality
Hello and welcome to the Essentia Readings podcast. My name is Nadia and I’ll be bringing you content from a wide range of contributors: scholars, journalists, philosophers, scientists, and academics. All to do with that ineffable thing we call consciousness. What is the underlying nature of reality? How do we explain our experience of the world and others? And what are the real implications of viewing existence from an idealist perspective, rather than the prevalent metaphysical model of mat...
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
14 ratings
Contact Essentia Readings
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Essentia Readings?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
