Critical Mind, Embodied Spirit

#008 - Both an incredible story and an exploration of logic itself, in this episode I finally tell the unbelievable but true story, in detail, of my first encounter with bioelectrical Qigong. In order to evaluate the story, this episode is also an exploration of cognitive biases and logical fallacies that might lead us away from the truth. If you're a fan of both critical thinking and embodiment, if you're drawn to the paranormal or a total sceptic, if you're an expert Qigong master or have never practiced before in your life, this episode will not disappoint. To find out more about Rudi and how to study authentic Neigong visit: www.authenticneigong.com 

Qigong is a dazzling minefield of rare treasures and disingenuous nonsense, all wrapped up in a language destined to confuse both the casual practitioner and the professional meditator, be they from China or from anywhere else. Where most books on Qigong use the currency of myth, mystery, and a misplaced deference for the esoteric, I've taken my encounters with the greatest Qigong masters in China and systematic long-term study of Chinese medicine, meditation and Daoist martial arts as material to make a rational overview of Qigong in plain English to help orient the critical thinker as she or he approaches this tricky topic. From its shamanic roots in Neolithic pre-history to modern biochemistry, I've looked at the storied history of Qigong, the difference between structural and bioelectric Qigong, as well as going deep into how modern biology can understand some of the mechanisms that makeup Qigong – like mitochondrial biogenesis and the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This episode is designed as a follow up to the episodes ‘What on Earth is Tai Chi?', ‘What on Earth is Qi? Part 1 – The Linguistic Perspective' and ‘What on Earth is Qi? Part 2 – The Physiological Perspective'. Enjoy for free! 

#006 - What is the essence of all myths? Is science a story? How can we use stories to transform ourselves? What does the future actually look like for our relationship with AI companions? This packed philosophical episode is a conversation between myself and Damir First. Damir is a master of stories and games – the study of them, the creation of them, and now the use of them to build AI companions made for the augmented reality metaverse.In this episode we've gone deep on the role of stories in human civilization, memetics, whether science is merely a story, Jungian individuation, the current renaissance in storytelling, the monomyth – the Hero's journey, using stories and games to heal physical and emotional trauma, the use of stories in propaganda, meme echoes, motivational salience, the science of addiction, web 3.0, AI pets, augmented reality and a lot more.

#005 – Qi and modern science are surely contradictory, right? Qi can't be found by modern physiologists after all. Following the clues in the ancient texts of traditional Chinese medicine, the mysterious qi molecule has finally been discovered! It's called… adenosine triphosphate. You might be wondering what plain old ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecular currency of energy in the body, has to do in a story about a magical power called Qi. In this episode, Barnaby Kent guides you down the rabbit hole on a dense journey of discovery into the many different types of qi in the human body and how the modern, rational, English-speaking mind can relate to them as straightforward physiological processes. 

#004 - Insert the word ‘qi' into an English sentence and you've immediately scored some esoteric and mystical points from some people, but in doing so you've invariably put other people off, making them think you're either totally bonkers or simply that you're demonstrating your allegiance to a particular worldview rooted in Bronze Age China. The term ‘qi' has become a catch-all box in the English language where you can throw the products of your wildest imagination but inside of which you are protected by unquestioning belief or unquestioning disbelief. In this episode, Barnaby Kent looks at the phenomenon of ‘qi' (气, 氣, 気, 炁) from the perspective of linguistics and linguistic philosophy exploring why disagreements over the existence of ‘qi' might be more to do with a conflict in linguistics and less to do with a conflict of worldviews. 

#003 - What is it really like for a ‘westerner' to live as a Buddhist monk? Phillip Gallenberger has been living as a monk in one of the largest monasteries in the world, the Tibetan Buddhist monastic university Sera Jey in Southern India, for well over a decade. In this episode he talks about his daily life in the monastery full of debate as an analytical approach to internalizing what the Buddha taught. Phillip also goes deep on the secret of happiness, the real meaning of emptiness, attainments in meditation (and why people don't discuss them) as well the role of the body in Buddhist training and a lot more.

#002 - Tai Chi in China is in a state of crisis as combat athletes like Xu Xiao Dong destroy Tai Chi ‘masters' left, right, and centre. For anyone who's interested in the martial arts and wants a no-nonsense answer to the question ‘What on Earth actually is Tai Chi?' in this solo show Barnaby Kent, 6th generation disciple of Yang family Tai Chi and Chinese medical student at the Shanghai University of Chinese Medicine, draws upon over a decade of studying and training in China to try and answer the question by going deep into the history, philosophy, and physiology of the Tai Chi mechanism in plain English (without getting lost in jargon!) 

#001 - According to research on the topic, about 60% of us admit that we make New Year's resolutions but only about 8% of us are successful in completing them. In the first episode of Critical Mind, Embodied Spirit, Biju Sukumaran, author of the Science of Self Help https://scienceofselfhelp.org/, discusses why we might be failing and how to take a practical, scientific, and systems-based approach to habit formation as a way to permanent self-improvement that doesn't just rely on the brute force of willpower. Biju talks about a decade of recording the data from the first-person science of implementing (almost) every self-help technique under the sun and how he surveyed the epic self-help landscape to put it all in one place and devise The Elements of Change: A Grand Unified Theory of Self-Help.