EPISODE SUMMARY:
This week, on The Conscious Consultant Hour, Sam is pleased to welcome Author, Speaker, and fellow Radio Show Host, Douglas Grunther.
Douglas is the creator/host of the Woodstock Roundtable, a multi award-winning radio talk show informed by his love of philosophy, depth psychology, and spiritual insight. His guests have been among the most original visionaries of our time.
Douglas graduated from Columbia University where he was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist. He has been the featured speaker in front of national audiences, and is a dreamwork facilitator certified by Dr. Jeremy Taylor, Co-Founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
Douglas has spent a lifetime challenging our perceptions and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. In his cutting-edge new book, The Quantum & The Dream: Visionary Consciousness, AI, and The New Renaissance, he delves into the mysteries of quantum paradoxes, the rich fabric of mythology, and the hidden corners of the mind to spark the reader’s imagination.
Tune in and share your questions and comments about the your experiences with dreams on our YouTube livestream or on our Facebook page.
Remember the https://spiritplantmedicine.com/ Use coupon code TCC2024 for a 35% discount!
00:00:45.300 --> 00:00:54.870 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Good afternoon, my conscious co-creators. Welcome to another edition of the conscious Consultant hour awakening humanity.
00:00:55.220 --> 00:01:17.650 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Very, very pleased that you are all here with me today. We've got another wonderful show in store for you. Did you catch my last week's show? It was just me and you riffing on telling you a little story about stuff that happened recently. You didn't have a chance to check it out, please do so. Unfortunately, my guest didn't make it last week. So
00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:27.000 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: all right. So let's start off, as we always do with my blog post from a couple of years ago. Let's see what we're up to now.
00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:30.280 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So this blog is entitled.
00:01:30.770 --> 00:01:35.489 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: when we follow the seasons, we are in harmony with nature.
00:01:36.710 --> 00:01:40.859 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: In the modern world it is easy to disconnect from nature.
00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:45.309 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We easily forget how the seasons affect us.
00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:50.660 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Living in modern cities, we act as if there is. There are no seasons.
00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:53.229 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We may change our clothes.
00:01:53.380 --> 00:01:55.240 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: but not our habits
00:01:56.150 --> 00:02:02.459 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: back. When we lived closer to the land, we knew how to live with the seasons.
00:02:03.110 --> 00:02:05.769 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We learned to plant in the spring
00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:07.579 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: water in the summer
00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:11.930 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: harvest in the fall and rest in winter.
00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:16.709 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yet in today's world there is no season for rest.
00:02:17.410 --> 00:02:24.219 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We are constantly planting, watering, harvesting in our businesses and our careers.
00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:28.799 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: There might be a week or 2 we take off for a vacation.
00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.079 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: yet often there is no rest.
00:02:31.130 --> 00:02:36.429 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We travel from one place to another, trying to make the most of our time
00:02:36.990 --> 00:02:43.559 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: rushing to fill out the days with all the things we can't do while we're at work.
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:47.389 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So even in our time of rest
00:02:47.720 --> 00:02:49.239 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: we are not resting.
00:02:50.130 --> 00:02:59.790 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Being so disconnected from nature, it is not surprising there is an epidemic of stress and disease in our culture?
00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:04.840 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: The answer is, how to live. A more harmonious life
00:03:05.070 --> 00:03:07.310 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: is all around us.
00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:12.449 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We just have to open our eyes and pay attention.
00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:14.010 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So
00:03:14.150 --> 00:03:18.800 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: even the birds know when to fly south for the winter.
00:03:19.540 --> 00:03:24.700 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: This does not mean we have to give up all of our modern conveniences.
00:03:25.140 --> 00:03:31.479 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It merely means paying attention to the nature that is all around us.
00:03:31.880 --> 00:03:33.490 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: by following.
00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:37.279 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: by flowing with the cycles of the seasons.
00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:39.970 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We live a healthier life.
00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:46.980 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: learning from the plants and animals, understanding that they have much to teach us.
00:03:48.030 --> 00:03:50.960 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: All indigenous cultures understand this
00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:56.639 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: when we follow the seasons, we are in harmony with nature.
00:03:57.550 --> 00:04:01.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to live a healthier, happier, and longer life.
00:04:01.420 --> 00:04:08.240 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: All we have to do is pay attention and honor. The environment that we live in
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.179 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: these artificial structures, in rules that society has developed
00:04:14.200 --> 00:04:16.810 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: does not serve us.
00:04:17.820 --> 00:04:21.809 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: for they are artificial, not based on nature.
00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:24.610 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: When we follow nature.
00:04:24.630 --> 00:04:29.209 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: we follow, we are following our true inner compass.
00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:33.970 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and that inner compass never takes us off course.
00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:41.110 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So as we enter into the time of winter in the north and summer in the South.
00:04:41.220 --> 00:04:42.789 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: let us remember
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.540 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Winters for resting.
00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:47.879 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Spring is for planting.
00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:49.990 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Summer is for watering.
00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:52.389 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and autumn is for harvesting.
00:04:53.780 --> 00:04:55.910 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It's so simple.
00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:01.159 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: yet not easy for us to follow in this modern world.
00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:06.329 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: How can you start to follow the seasons in your own life?
00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:13.340 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So I wrote this a couple of years ago, probably beginning of of winter 2 years ago.
00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:24.739 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And this is something that my teacher Armand talks a lot about, and and something, as I learn more about indigenous cultures in society.
00:05:25.140 --> 00:05:28.629 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that I think about more frequently.
00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:31.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And that's really about
00:05:33.470 --> 00:05:38.469 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: how to live like like, what's the practical application?
00:05:38.750 --> 00:05:45.409 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: When we say, living in harmony with nature? What's the practical application of that. What does that really mean?
00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:49.280 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And
00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:54.070 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: you know it's so funny, especially here in the United States.
00:05:56.470 --> 00:06:00.609 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that we so totally ignore
00:06:01.590 --> 00:06:07.039 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: what it means to be in summer or winter, or spring, or fall.
00:06:08.940 --> 00:06:13.060 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: we constantly act as if it's spring or fall.
00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:16.140 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: or or summer.
00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:18.639 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We we never really
00:06:19.530 --> 00:06:24.439 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: take time in our lives to rest for a season.
00:06:24.540 --> 00:06:36.600 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: not not not for the whole year, and not just for a week or 2, when we take our vacation off. Now, look, does this mean we stop everything for for 3 months? No.
00:06:38.710 --> 00:06:41.679 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: it just means being mindful
00:06:41.880 --> 00:06:46.030 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: of what is the energy of nature around us.
00:06:46.760 --> 00:06:50.709 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: being mindful of of what that
00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:54.229 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: season, what that energy represents.
00:06:57.030 --> 00:07:02.840 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and then just bringing a little bit more of that into our day-to-day life.
00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:16.540 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: You know the beginning of the year when it turns from the clock, magically turns from December to January. Everyone's rushing for the beginning of the year to get started and hit their goals and do all this stuff.
00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:25.110 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And it's actually that frenetic energy of trying to get as much done in the beginning of the year is actually the exact opposite
00:07:25.760 --> 00:07:30.449 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: of what we should be doing at that time if we're living in harmony with nature.
00:07:30.850 --> 00:07:37.209 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Now, again, I'm talking from a Northern Hemisphere perspective, Southern Hemisphere just flipped the seasons.
00:07:39.830 --> 00:07:43.779 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: But in wintertime it's time to step back
00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:45.330 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to rest.
00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:53.560 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to to give a chance to integrate all we've experienced during the prior 3 seasons.
00:07:55.660 --> 00:08:01.380 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and just allow our nervous systems to calm down for a change.
00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:05.600 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to just not push ourselves so hard.
00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.489 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: so that when spring comes.
00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:19.420 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: when when the trees start to bud again, when when the grass starts to turn green and and flowers start to
00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:21.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: creep up through the soil
00:08:22.460 --> 00:08:24.600 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that then we start
00:08:25.290 --> 00:08:26.930 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: moving into the
00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:28.910 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: springtime energy.
00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:37.810 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and we start to plant our seeds for the year. And then summertime comes and we're watering and fertilizing
00:08:38.570 --> 00:08:44.020 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: metaphorically. What's going on and then fall is when we harvest
00:08:44.550 --> 00:08:45.480 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: hopefully.
00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:54.199 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And again, I'm not saying we completely stop doing what we're doing.
00:08:55.180 --> 00:09:02.360 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It's about doing it more mindfully. It's about showing up more consciously in our day-to-day life
00:09:03.330 --> 00:09:09.290 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that's more in alignment with what the energy is of the environment around us.
00:09:12.550 --> 00:09:16.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And again that that energy can be different, depending on where we live.
00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:24.639 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: depending on whether we're on the east coast, the west coast we're in the middle of the country? Are we more south, more north?
00:09:27.790 --> 00:09:29.850 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: But are we paying attention?
00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:33.260 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Are we paying attention
00:09:33.730 --> 00:09:36.809 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to what the season is around us?
00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:43.780 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And and there's even one very simple thing
00:09:44.020 --> 00:09:47.000 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that shows us to rest more.
00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:54.550 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: not to rest all the time, but to rest more during winter than not, and that is days are so short. Night is long.
00:09:55.800 --> 00:09:59.400 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Our bodies are designed to sleep at night.
00:10:01.770 --> 00:10:07.950 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: so maybe we should just rest a little bit more, and rest doesn't always mean sleep.
00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:11.190 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Rest can just mean
00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:13.909 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: sitting back, taking it easy.
00:10:14.830 --> 00:10:19.010 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: reflecting on things, thinking about things, not doing stuff.
00:10:21.430 --> 00:10:24.539 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Spring is the time to start doing again.
00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:28.069 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and it builds and it builds, and it builds
00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:32.720 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: throughout the year until fall comes, and when we finish the harvest
00:10:34.420 --> 00:10:36.050 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: time to rest again.
00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:39.000 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: it's a natural cycle.
00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:43.420 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and when we live more in harmony
00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:45.259 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: with that cycle.
00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:48.650 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I don't know. It just feels
00:10:49.190 --> 00:10:50.080 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: better.
00:10:50.510 --> 00:10:52.079 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It feels easier.
00:10:52.230 --> 00:10:53.760 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It feels more
00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:55.430 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: apropos
00:10:56.090 --> 00:10:57.160 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: for
00:10:58.750 --> 00:11:00.540 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: the way we're designed.
00:11:03.020 --> 00:11:04.820 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And look. I know that.
00:11:04.870 --> 00:11:07.070 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: you know, in today's world
00:11:07.290 --> 00:11:11.020 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: doing this sounds a lot easier than it is.
00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:15.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: but if we can just lean in that direction a little bit.
00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:17.330 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Just
00:11:17.430 --> 00:11:20.270 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: keep it in mind a little bit more
00:11:25.680 --> 00:11:27.540 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that that maybe. Then
00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:34.740 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: maybe then there'll be a little less stress. Maybe then there'll be a little less disease. Maybe then
00:11:35.310 --> 00:11:38.850 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: we'll be able to show up to our own lives
00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:41.030 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: in a little bit
00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:43.240 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: more fruitful way.
00:11:44.340 --> 00:11:47.829 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So that's my blog post for this week.
00:11:47.850 --> 00:12:03.509 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: The title, again, is when we follow the seasons. We are in harmony with nature, and of course you can always find my blog on my personally branded website, theconsciousconsultant.com, or on the talk radio website. Talk radio
00:12:03.640 --> 00:12:06.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: dot Nyc slash blog.
00:12:07.780 --> 00:12:13.859 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So now and of course, don't forget, if you like. My blogs get my book everyday Awakening. You'll love it
00:12:13.930 --> 00:12:23.900 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: all right. So now it is my pleasure to welcome to the show author, speaker and fellow radio show host. Douglas Grunther
00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:37.219 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Douglas is the creator host of the Woodstock Roundtable. A multi award winning radio talk, show informed by his love of philosophy, depth, psychology, and spiritual insights.
00:12:37.250 --> 00:12:42.760 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: His guests, guests have been among the most original visionaries of our time.
00:12:43.160 --> 00:12:48.339 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: He graduated from Columbia University, where he was a Rhodes scholar, finalist.
00:12:48.560 --> 00:13:02.979 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: smart guy. He has been the featured speaker in front of national audiences and is a dream work facilitator, certified by Dr. Jeremy Taylor, co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:13.039 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Douglas has spent a lifetime challenging our perceptions and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in his cutting edge. New book, and I got it right here.
00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:28.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: The quantum and the dream visionary consciousness AI and the new Renaissance. He delves into the mysteries of quantum paradoxes, the rich fabric of mythology and the hidden corners of the mind to spark the reader's imagination.
00:13:28.350 --> 00:13:31.230 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Welcome to the conscious, consultant hour, Douglas.
00:13:31.230 --> 00:13:32.740 Douglas Grunther: Great to be with you.
00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:45.130 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Wonderful to have you here. Very, very glad you got your audio working. we just got a a minute or 2 before break. So I would just love to kind of
00:13:45.230 --> 00:14:03.040 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: give the audience a little bit of your background of kind. Of what got you interested in studying things like depth, psychology and spirituality and and dream work. I mean, that's not your typical kind of focus for most people, is it.
00:14:03.450 --> 00:14:31.850 Douglas Grunther: No to try to give you a quick answer. In college over 50 years ago, when my mind was 1st being opened up by a philosophy Professor. I love going to the University bookstore and just roaming, looking at and picking out books and reading the 1st page, and 2 very thin books caught my attention more than any others, and at 1st they would sound very different from each other. One was the Dao Ching.
00:14:31.850 --> 00:14:32.350 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Checking you.
00:14:32.350 --> 00:14:58.620 Douglas Grunther: Right, a venerable ancient compendium of spiritual wisdom, and the other was Marshall Mcluhan's contemporary book. The Medium is the massage, and after reading the 1st page of both of those books I had 2 paradoxical impressions right at once. My 1st impression was, these may be the 2 most important books I ever read, and the second impression was, I have no idea what they're talking about.
00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:09.230 Douglas Grunther: and I didn't know then. I know now that was because I was accessing the right hemisphere of my brain versus the left.
00:15:09.230 --> 00:15:35.950 Douglas Grunther: The left hemisphere is very analytical, very practical. It needs certainty. It needs to know it can get to a specific answer, okay, which is very good when you're putting together a watch or building a bridge. But the right hemisphere is much more into imagination and swimming in uncertainty and ambiguity to arrive at new perceptions. And that's what both the Dao Ching
00:15:35.950 --> 00:15:40.349 Douglas Grunther: and Mcluhan's book we're doing in very different ways. So that was my
00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:50.060 Douglas Grunther: 1st start into being intrigued by something which intuitively felt incredibly important. But I couldn't understand right away.
00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:56.500 Douglas Grunther: As far as the dreams go, to make it as brief as possible. About
00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:15.289 Douglas Grunther: 35 years ago I was experiencing some very weird physical symptoms once a week I couldn't get out of bed, so I got a full blood test. It was no limes, no mono. I was. My doctor said. You're healthy, I said great once a week. I can't get out of bed.
00:16:15.290 --> 00:16:15.840 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: No.
00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:28.099 Douglas Grunther: An allergist who listened to my show. I called him, he said, I'll give you the Rolls Royce test. We'll figure out what you know what's going on, and according to his test, I was allergic to everything which we both knew was not true.
00:16:28.140 --> 00:16:32.340 Douglas Grunther: So I walked out of his office incredibly frustrated.
00:16:32.540 --> 00:16:40.949 Douglas Grunther: What's going on? And I went to a bookstore, and the book that called to me was a book called Dream Work, by Dr. Jeremy Taylor.
00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:52.470 Douglas Grunther: and I started reading it. I read it cover to cover. I started implementing some of his practice routines. I started tapping into my dreams, and within a month my symptoms
00:16:52.500 --> 00:17:02.750 Douglas Grunther: cleared up. I don't know which dream did it. Whether it was the underlying process and interesting in Mcluhan's book, his famous Meme the Medium, is the message.
00:17:03.370 --> 00:17:19.440 Douglas Grunther: The underlying process of any situation has more of an effect on us primarily the unconscious than does the content. And I learned that with dreamworks. So that's kind of a quick one, and as far as quantum goes, I am not a scientist. I was not good at math.
00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:34.159 Douglas Grunther: But I read a book called the Tao of Physics, by Richard Kopra. I love your smile because it's an amazing book by a Phd. In physics who had a mystical experience and then did research and showed
00:17:34.469 --> 00:17:49.079 Douglas Grunther: categorically that 4 of the leading developers of quantum theory, the most successful science and the reason you and I can talk over the world Wide web right now. They were all deeply into ancient Eastern spiritual
00:17:49.596 --> 00:18:00.779 Douglas Grunther: traditions. That's not a coincidence, because what they were finding philosophically and spiritually at the in the depths of the subatomic world
00:18:01.129 --> 00:18:15.099 Douglas Grunther: was very resonant with what they had been practicing in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Zen. And so that's kind of a matrix of how I got interested, and only took me about 52 years to write this book.
00:18:15.100 --> 00:18:15.520 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Goodbye.
00:18:16.315 --> 00:18:17.679 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Is that all.
00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:33.789 Douglas Grunther: Yeah, but it gave me a chance to integrate a lot of these visions in. And then the key was, how do we adapt this to where we are in this incredible, exciting and and and and scary digital age.
00:18:33.790 --> 00:18:34.699 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah, yeah.
00:18:34.700 --> 00:19:01.620 Douglas Grunther: An age which has the most potential of any age human beings have ever experienced, and also is one of the most tense and precarious because of the speed at which change is happening. So the book is my opportunity to try to present these visions, and how they can help us not only survive but thrive in what is going to be an escalating anxiety, ridden digital age.
00:19:01.620 --> 00:19:21.500 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah, yeah, beautiful, beautiful. Well, I really want to get into the book. There's so many great topics in here. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back I just want to touch upon what was the impetus for writing the book, and and then let's dive into the themes of the book. Okay. Doug.
00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:22.609 Douglas Grunther: Looking forward to it.
00:19:22.610 --> 00:19:47.290 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: All right. So everyone, please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity. We do this every Thursday 12 noon to one Pm. Eastern time, right here on Talkradio, Dot, Nyc. And all over the world, wide web on all the major social channels, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin Twitch. Wherever you like to listen to shows you'll find us there, and we will be right back with our guest, Douglas Grunther, in just a moment.
00:22:03.010 --> 00:22:17.429 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And welcome back to the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity. We're speaking this hour with Douglas Grunther, author, speaker, and fellow radio show host, author of the book, The new book, The Quantum and the Dream.
00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:25.829 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I do want to know, like, what got you started writing the book. But before I do that. You know you've already mentioned quantum physics. A moment ago
00:22:26.850 --> 00:22:28.700 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: the the
00:22:28.750 --> 00:22:35.740 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Nobel Prize for Physics, a couple of years ago, was awarded to a couple of gentlemen
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:40.069 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: for proving that the universe is not locally real.
00:22:42.970 --> 00:22:45.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: How should we take that
00:22:46.190 --> 00:22:47.560 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and
00:22:47.990 --> 00:23:00.109 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: like? How do we apply that to our day-to-day life? I mean to me that there should be huge implications about that. But you don't hear people talking about that in in common conversation, do we.
00:23:00.290 --> 00:23:10.269 Douglas Grunther: All right. It's it's complex. And some of the New Age people out there want to simplify it and say, Well, quantum theory is saying everything's interrelated.
00:23:10.300 --> 00:23:28.920 Douglas Grunther: and therefore, if you wish enough for something, it'll happen. I'm glad that's not true. Because, could you imagine if we got everything we wished for and wanted, we'd be gone by now. We'd have depleted the planet of everything but what the quantum theory discovered
00:23:29.180 --> 00:23:40.080 Douglas Grunther: and imply with something you're referring to called entanglement. The Nobel Prize was for entanglement. Now, in the our normal day to day living entanglement is a negative word. We don't want.
00:23:40.080 --> 00:23:40.450 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: To be in.
00:23:40.450 --> 00:24:08.479 Douglas Grunther: Entangled at the quantum level. The word entanglement was used, the way spiritual traditions talk about everything being an interconnected matrix, an interconnected web, and what they meant by no such thing as local realism is. We assume we live in localities. You and I are not physically in the same space, but at a much deeper level in the subatomic world of which we're all apart.
00:24:09.942 --> 00:24:19.589 Douglas Grunther: It was implied by quantum theory that everything was connected in such a way that nothing ever gets really separated.
00:24:19.610 --> 00:24:46.350 Douglas Grunther: and Einstein spent the remaining 30 years of his life determined to disprove it, because even his amazing brain couldn't accept entanglement. Well, 10 years after he died it was proven mathematically, and then, as you point out, in the eighties, and then the Nobel Prize was awarded a few years ago in the laboratory it was proved that entanglement is, in fact, real.
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:58.639 Douglas Grunther: I use it as an analogy because you and I are talking over something called the World Wide Web. It is the most by far collaborative medium human beings have ever created. Now.
00:24:59.370 --> 00:25:07.790 Douglas Grunther: even if you don't want to go as deep into the mysticism of some of these great Eastern Asian traditions.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:15.350 Douglas Grunther: The fact of the matter is, let's take somebody current like the most famous and influential historian on the planet
00:25:15.470 --> 00:25:41.569 Douglas Grunther: Yuval. Noah Harare, right, wrote the book Sapiens. The key theme of sapiens is that what makes us the most intelligent and powerful species on the planet is not our physical strength. Obviously we wouldn't do well against a gorilla or a bear. It's not our speed. We wouldn't do very well against a cheetah or an antelope. It's our ability to collaborate beyond our immediate families and cultures.
00:25:41.570 --> 00:25:42.100 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And.
00:25:42.100 --> 00:25:57.370 Douglas Grunther: So here we are talking across and within the most collaborative medium by far ever invented 5.5 billion plus humans connected by this incredible communications matrix. Now.
00:25:58.450 --> 00:26:14.130 Douglas Grunther: people are freaking out understandably that the World Wide Web is very addictive. It's got a lot of bad actors, stealing identities. It's got advertisers trying to get us to buy things we don't need, and we're vulnerable to all this, all of which is true.
00:26:14.310 --> 00:26:22.310 Douglas Grunther: But why is that surprising, as I point out in my book, The Quantum and the Dream. Thanks to the work of the great Marshall Mcluhan.
00:26:22.450 --> 00:26:48.079 Douglas Grunther: the oracle of the Electronic Age, was his nickname. In the sixties and seventies. Every new major medium has caused disruption until the human brain learned to adapt to it. When TV came in, I quote some of the critics who said, This is going to rot children's brains. Well, they weren't totally wrong. As a 6 year old I was addicted to that TV screen and what was advertised at me.
00:26:48.080 --> 00:27:01.219 Douglas Grunther: Brilliant commercials getting me addicted to sugar. I demanded sugar all the time, and the next new toy I was screaming for the next new toy. It took me as an adult, a conscious adult, to get off my addiction to sugar, which I did.
00:27:02.740 --> 00:27:04.020 Douglas Grunther: radio
00:27:04.060 --> 00:27:13.150 Douglas Grunther: fabulous medium you and I both know. Well, here's an interesting paradox for you. Okay, I'll ask you as a question. Who were the 2 individuals
00:27:13.260 --> 00:27:18.039 Douglas Grunther: when radio was becoming the most powerful medium in the 19 thirties.
00:27:18.330 --> 00:27:27.860 Douglas Grunther: replacing the newspapers, the most powerful communications tool, who were the 2 individuals worldwide who used radio most effectively.
00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:41.810 Douglas Grunther: The answer is, Franklin Roosevelt, whose fireside chats helped lift us out of the depression, and Adolf Hitler, who used radio to gain power.
00:27:41.950 --> 00:27:47.709 Douglas Grunther: So you want to say we'll get rid of radio. Maybe Hitler wouldn't have become as powerful. You wouldn't have had Fdr.
00:27:48.860 --> 00:28:09.850 Douglas Grunther: Advantages. We can go back over the printing press where you read intellectuals of the 15th century going. This is terrible. People's brains are going to be mush with too much information. They're going to be isolated in rooms, reading these things and not talking to each other. Even Plato considered the most influential philosopher of all time.
00:28:10.120 --> 00:28:14.099 Douglas Grunther: railed and criticized the invention of the alphabet.
00:28:14.170 --> 00:28:26.300 Douglas Grunther: and I go into the reasons Mcclud pointed them out there. They're actually very good reasons why to talk about your opening talk about connecting to nature. Plato was concerned he was not wrong.
00:28:26.710 --> 00:28:35.560 Douglas Grunther: that if all of a sudden, instead of being tuned into the rhythms of nature, we're getting our information from these totally made up abstract letters
00:28:35.740 --> 00:28:47.660 Douglas Grunther: in an alphabet we would lose our connection to. He wasn't wrong, but I think we would agree that the invention of the alphabet. The invention of writing, the invention of the printing press, radio television
00:28:47.750 --> 00:28:55.279 Douglas Grunther: overall was a huge advantage because it helps us collaborate. It helps us educate ourselves and get more information.
00:28:55.280 --> 00:29:00.579 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right. It all depends how we use it, though, because it could be used to create or it can be used to destroy.
00:29:00.580 --> 00:29:14.099 Douglas Grunther: Well, you used a phrase that's 1 of my favorite in your opening. You said we need to pay more attention. Isn't it interesting, Sam, that we came up with a phrase which we take for granted to pay attention. What are we doing?
00:29:14.390 --> 00:29:22.380 Douglas Grunther: You and I both agree that our culture is marvelous as it is in many ways, is way too materialistic and too too obsessed with money. Right?
00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:22.710 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah.
00:29:22.710 --> 00:29:28.199 Douglas Grunther: Isn't it interesting that in order to show the importance of our attention.
00:29:28.300 --> 00:29:31.049 Douglas Grunther: we use an economic term, pay.
00:29:31.460 --> 00:29:32.280 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Pay. Yeah.
00:29:32.280 --> 00:29:49.639 Douglas Grunther: And we do pay for our attention. We pay for it more than anything we pay for with money, because where we put our attention affects what we think, what we feel and how we act, and what we believe. And so I couldn't agree with you more. We need to pay more attention
00:29:50.200 --> 00:29:57.209 Douglas Grunther: to the rhythms of nature, our connection to it. And in order to do that, and this is the second section of my book.
00:29:57.520 --> 00:30:00.569 Douglas Grunther: we need to understand, at a deeper level.
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:06.519 Douglas Grunther: the shift going on from primarily getting our information from the printed page to the digital screen.
00:30:07.040 --> 00:30:07.900 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah, yeah.
00:30:07.900 --> 00:30:12.660 Douglas Grunther: And and I go into that in in depth. But here is just to me a a good
00:30:12.870 --> 00:30:26.210 Douglas Grunther: example. So even most of my friends who I love are railing against the web. It's too much too soon. It's too addictive, too much chaos up there. Here's my answer.
00:30:26.250 --> 00:30:27.690 Douglas Grunther: Anybody
00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:31.239 Douglas Grunther: and your listeners and viewers know this as well as any
00:30:31.260 --> 00:30:35.200 Douglas Grunther: audience. Anytime you sit down to contemplate.
00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:37.879 Douglas Grunther: to meditate, to just
00:30:38.280 --> 00:30:39.960 Douglas Grunther: slow down your mind.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:31:07.559 Douglas Grunther: The 1st thing we all encounter is the chattering monkey mind that's chattering to us what we have to get done, all that. And anyone who's learned how to either self-hypnosis or visualization which was Einstein's favorite tool, or meditation or contemplation, knows you practice learning how to get underneath all that chattering noise of your individual brain to the deeper, more mystical and wisdom
00:31:07.560 --> 00:31:27.979 Douglas Grunther: in the deeper parts of our mind. Well, if that's true for us as individuals, why would we expect to get on a digital screen with billions of people's nervous system, coursing through axial cables and beaming up and down from satellites? Why would we expect that to be a beautiful hallmark card of quiet and peace and beauty.
00:31:28.450 --> 00:31:28.780 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:31:28.780 --> 00:31:38.809 Douglas Grunther: It's going to be noisy and chaotic. But just as with individual contemplation and meditation, when we practice getting underneath all the noise
00:31:38.950 --> 00:31:40.340 Douglas Grunther: right now.
00:31:40.740 --> 00:31:45.850 Douglas Grunther: there are thousands of the most wise people on this planet
00:31:45.990 --> 00:32:05.490 Douglas Grunther: talking to each other, writing to each other, creating blogs like you do doing radio shows. This is going on under the surface of the 24 7 News Cycle, and so and and that's our calling now is to get underneath the noise and the chaos to the wisdom
00:32:05.560 --> 00:32:10.290 Douglas Grunther: that never before did we have this opportunity to collaborate with.
00:32:10.290 --> 00:32:16.770 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right? Right? Absolutely. Okay. We've got to take our next break when we come back. I do want to
00:32:16.830 --> 00:32:18.229 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: take a step back.
00:32:18.370 --> 00:32:21.259 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Talk about what was the impetus for writing the book.
00:32:21.300 --> 00:32:31.100 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And then I want to get into actually some of the more forward thinking things around AI, and what you call the new Renaissance. Okay?
00:32:31.520 --> 00:32:32.530 Douglas Grunther: Looking forward to it.
00:32:32.530 --> 00:32:45.220 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Awesome. So everyone, please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity. We're speaking this arrow with Douglas Grunther, author of the book, the quantum and the dream, and we'll be right back in just a moment.
00:34:53.330 --> 00:35:13.750 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So, Douglas, in your book you touch upon a lot of really deep topics. There's a lot in here. What was the impetus? What got you to say, I mean, you're like myself, a radio talk show host. What got you to say that like I need to put stuff down on paper and create my Magnus opus.
00:35:14.546 --> 00:35:15.759 Douglas Grunther: Well.
00:35:16.580 --> 00:35:40.159 Douglas Grunther: I talked before, about over 50 years ago, being totally flipped out in a good way about the Dao Ching and Mcluhan's. The medium is the massage and then getting into dream work. And so I've led dream groups. I've done talks on dreams, and all of which is on the right hemisphere of the brain which we can talk about. But while I was fascinated by the world Wide Web.
00:35:41.039 --> 00:35:45.089 Douglas Grunther: I always consider computer is only for nerds and people who are good at
00:35:45.240 --> 00:35:47.659 Douglas Grunther: engineering and mechanical type people.
00:35:48.131 --> 00:35:53.098 Douglas Grunther: You know. I wouldn't know what a slide rule was if you hit me over the head with it.
00:35:53.560 --> 00:36:02.460 Douglas Grunther: But there was a wonderful gentleman by the name of Ed Rosenfeld. He passed away a few years ago. Who with Neil Goldsmith.
00:36:03.228 --> 00:36:08.369 Douglas Grunther: Created this incredible salon in New York City called Poetry. Science Talks.
00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:15.680 Douglas Grunther: and Ed had a second home up here in the Woodstock community, and he decided to do poetry. Science talks North.
00:36:15.710 --> 00:36:20.820 Douglas Grunther: and he was doing it. A friend of mine's office, which will happen to be a church.
00:36:21.330 --> 00:36:27.079 Douglas Grunther: and I was invited to give a number of talks where I started developing the themes that became the book.
00:36:27.540 --> 00:36:30.570 Douglas Grunther: But what really inspired me was, Ed
00:36:30.830 --> 00:36:36.609 Douglas Grunther: gave a talk at one of the salons upgrading us on what's going on with AI.
00:36:37.140 --> 00:36:41.390 Douglas Grunther: And I said, I need to learn a little bit more about this, even though it's not
00:36:41.680 --> 00:36:43.759 Douglas Grunther: my strength or instinct.
00:36:44.140 --> 00:36:46.250 Douglas Grunther: And as he was talking
00:36:46.450 --> 00:36:48.239 Douglas Grunther: and just giving kind of a
00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:51.569 Douglas Grunther: basic update as to what's going on with AI,
00:36:52.150 --> 00:36:55.800 Douglas Grunther: a light bulb went off in my head, which was, Wait a minute.
00:36:55.970 --> 00:36:58.280 Douglas Grunther: You've been thinking about
00:36:58.340 --> 00:37:05.799 Douglas Grunther: studying talking to experts about Mcluhan for 50 years, because he was such a wise Western sage about medium.
00:37:06.730 --> 00:37:08.500 Douglas Grunther: How can I
00:37:09.220 --> 00:37:17.770 Douglas Grunther: understand what's going on in the digital age without getting a deeper understanding of how the digital screen is affecting the human mind.
00:37:17.770 --> 00:37:18.410 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Hmm.
00:37:18.410 --> 00:37:24.179 Douglas Grunther: That's what Mcluhan was really about. He was writing in the sixties about how he pointed out
00:37:24.220 --> 00:37:42.309 Douglas Grunther: that you would not have had the revolutionary, the cultural revolution of the 19 sixties which I grew up in, where you had the women's movement, the Civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the hippies and the whole anti-establishment
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:44.730 Douglas Grunther: materialist paradigm.
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:47.270 Douglas Grunther: You wouldn't have had that without television.
00:37:47.330 --> 00:38:05.839 Douglas Grunther: not because of what was on television. Most of what was on television was crap. But because of the way TV interacts with the human mind different from anything before it, and no one else had bothered to think about that or write about that or investigate that.
00:38:05.950 --> 00:38:10.210 Douglas Grunther: So I said, well, if if we don't have Mcluhan anymore.
00:38:10.270 --> 00:38:15.600 Douglas Grunther: let me at least take a shot. And understanding how the things I care about
00:38:15.730 --> 00:38:29.610 Douglas Grunther: dreams, the right hemisphere of the brain, wisdom versus knowledge breaking through the materialist paradigm. How is the digital screen affecting that? And that became a big part of the book and an impetus for writing. It.
00:38:29.610 --> 00:38:35.669 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I see, I see. I see now now. The subtitle of the book is visionary consciousness
00:38:35.750 --> 00:38:38.600 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: AI and the new Renaissance.
00:38:39.250 --> 00:38:40.270 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So
00:38:41.030 --> 00:38:45.229 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: let's tackle this one at a time. What is the new Renaissance.
00:38:45.260 --> 00:38:47.530 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and what does AI have to do with it?
00:38:47.910 --> 00:38:52.790 Douglas Grunther: Okay, so I am not a Futurist. But
00:38:53.300 --> 00:38:57.869 Douglas Grunther: I am. I am. I. Am. I identify in the book
00:38:57.900 --> 00:38:59.790 Douglas Grunther: some deep patterns
00:39:00.010 --> 00:39:05.540 Douglas Grunther: that I believe we start initiated in the year 1,900, the 1st year of the Modern Age.
00:39:05.820 --> 00:39:17.920 Douglas Grunther: and I trace it through the 20th century. And then how it's emerging here in the 21st century. Okay, so and the reason it's emerging now is because of AI.
00:39:18.080 --> 00:39:18.980 Douglas Grunther: Now
00:39:19.110 --> 00:39:22.530 Douglas Grunther: the new Renaissance. Let's talk about what is a Renaissance.
00:39:23.310 --> 00:39:25.009 Douglas Grunther: It means rebirth.
00:39:25.600 --> 00:39:26.830 Douglas Grunther: All right.
00:39:27.390 --> 00:39:31.570 Douglas Grunther: We we go through individual renaissances, new ideas.
00:39:31.630 --> 00:39:34.240 Douglas Grunther: right? The conscious consultant
00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:43.979 Douglas Grunther: is a Renaissance, because it was the birth of a new way for you to express what you were, just as my book and my radio show, or my versions of a individual Renaissance.
00:39:43.980 --> 00:39:44.520 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:39:44.750 --> 00:39:47.910 Douglas Grunther: In order for something to be reborn.
00:39:48.370 --> 00:39:53.040 Douglas Grunther: What was holding it back or restricting it has to die off.
00:39:54.330 --> 00:39:54.980 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And.
00:39:54.980 --> 00:40:05.449 Douglas Grunther: That never happens politely or casually or easily. So let's use as a comparison the great Italian Renaissance.
00:40:05.490 --> 00:40:08.279 Douglas Grunther: Now we were taught a very surface.
00:40:09.120 --> 00:40:20.169 Douglas Grunther: Study of the Italian Renaissance we learned about the great artwork of Michelangelo and Galileo peering through his telescope, all of which were crucial.
00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:47.590 Douglas Grunther: But there was also a new philosophy called Humanism, which, after a thousand years of a dark middle age, where the church and the royal families controlled what anybody could think, and if you expressed anything different than they wanted you to, you were either excommunicated or executed. And now here comes this, this flourishing of humanism, where the individual mind and the ability of the individual mind to understand itself and the world
00:40:47.950 --> 00:40:51.260 Douglas Grunther: and share ideas started to blossom.
00:40:51.290 --> 00:40:56.550 Douglas Grunther: Okay, but it only happened as the Church was.
00:40:56.800 --> 00:41:15.850 Douglas Grunther: Power was dying out, but it wasn't dead. For example, Galileo, after doing literally creating science by peering out through a telescope and objectively determining that the earth was, in fact, not the center of the universe, that we were one of a number of orbits circling the sun.
00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:18.420 Douglas Grunther: What was his reward?
00:41:18.910 --> 00:41:30.610 Douglas Grunther: House arrest for the rest of his life by the church. He was lucky he wasn't killed. Yeah. So the Renaissance was a great time, but it doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of darkness, and if you look at the history.
00:41:30.660 --> 00:41:35.749 Douglas Grunther: one of the great motivators of the Italian Renaissance was the Black Plague.
00:41:35.810 --> 00:41:42.740 Douglas Grunther: which was on its way to killing off 1 3rd of all Europe, rich and poor alike, and they didn't even know the cause.
00:41:42.740 --> 00:41:43.470 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:41:43.610 --> 00:41:44.400 Douglas Grunther: So
00:41:44.750 --> 00:41:49.620 Douglas Grunther: why is the Black Plague connected with the Renaissance? Because you need something
00:41:49.750 --> 00:42:01.220 Douglas Grunther: so strongly chaotic to break through old paradigms. It's the way nature works. You talked about nature before nature works by creating and destroying at the same time.
00:42:01.220 --> 00:42:06.499 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So was was our pandemic, our covid pandemic, our modern day black plague.
00:42:06.500 --> 00:42:17.210 Douglas Grunther: No, it was a mosquito bite, because, compared to climate change and global warming, Covid will be looked at as as tepid. Now it killed 7 million people. It was a horrendous
00:42:17.310 --> 00:42:20.370 Douglas Grunther: virus. I'm not. I'm not pretending it wasn't.
00:42:20.660 --> 00:42:21.460 Douglas Grunther: But
00:42:23.050 --> 00:42:28.650 Douglas Grunther: Here's what's not shown as as horrible as Covid was killing 7 million people, total.
00:42:29.180 --> 00:42:33.840 Douglas Grunther: 7 million people die every year from air pollution. You don't hear a lot about that.
00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:34.710 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah.
00:42:34.710 --> 00:42:39.239 Douglas Grunther: So we are literally destroying the very
00:42:39.450 --> 00:42:48.460 Douglas Grunther: ecosphere that not only we need to exist as human beings, but most advanced life form does, and we're responsible for this. Yeah. And so
00:42:48.690 --> 00:43:04.739 Douglas Grunther: if you don't think that global warming is having a devastating effect, talk to the millions of people in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, who got slammed by Helene, which was supposed to be a force. One hurricane, and at the very last moments became a force 4.
00:43:05.060 --> 00:43:05.400 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yep.
00:43:05.400 --> 00:43:13.920 Douglas Grunther: That kind of escalation is the new paradigm. On the one hand, it's very destructive and very frightening. On the other hand.
00:43:14.470 --> 00:43:25.239 Douglas Grunther: we'll see. I am betting that we humans will be able to do what our ancestors did in the 14th to 16th century, especially induced by the Black Plague
00:43:25.610 --> 00:43:29.489 Douglas Grunther: and back in the Italian Renaissance, when the plague was killing off a 3rd of Europe.
00:43:29.520 --> 00:43:34.580 Douglas Grunther: the fastest form of communication was to hand Scribe a manuscript.
00:43:35.010 --> 00:43:35.680 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Hmm.
00:43:35.680 --> 00:43:40.179 Douglas Grunther: We're now have over 5 billion of us connected to a worldwide web.
00:43:40.820 --> 00:43:44.220 Douglas Grunther: And whatever happens with global warming.
00:43:44.840 --> 00:43:52.489 Douglas Grunther: we're we're going to mitigate it with new technology. But we're not going to solve it with new technology. It was technology that got us into this.
00:43:53.270 --> 00:44:10.779 Douglas Grunther: the way we're going to deal with it is by. And we're already seeing small changes. For example, if you look at younger generations. They don't want as big a house they don't want as big a car. They're realizing that the good life is not just about getting more stuff.
00:44:10.780 --> 00:44:11.610 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:44:11.990 --> 00:44:17.440 Douglas Grunther: About. It's about a better connection with people and with nature and
00:44:17.991 --> 00:44:30.850 Douglas Grunther: what I what I call for in the 3rd section of my. My book is divided into 3 shifts in consciousness, which, I say are pointing us towards a new Renaissance. I think we'll get there. I can't guarantee it.
00:44:30.850 --> 00:44:31.560 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah.
00:44:31.560 --> 00:44:38.950 Douglas Grunther: And one of those shifts, the one that took me the most time to that evolved in my emerged out of my consciousness
00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:45.370 Douglas Grunther: was the shift from the age of information to what I'm calling the age of recognition.
00:44:45.670 --> 00:44:46.390 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Hmm.
00:44:46.390 --> 00:44:48.309 Douglas Grunther: And that recognition
00:44:48.570 --> 00:44:53.509 Douglas Grunther: is a deeper understanding of what it means to be a human being in
00:44:53.660 --> 00:45:02.739 Douglas Grunther: the world, because the materialist paradigm that has ruled human behavior for for 5, 600 years
00:45:03.430 --> 00:45:11.269 Douglas Grunther: teaches us that we are separate from nature, and we can use nature to pull out of it all the material things that we love.
00:45:11.800 --> 00:45:14.529 Douglas Grunther: We're learning that we overdid it.
00:45:14.740 --> 00:45:15.230 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:45:15.230 --> 00:45:24.519 Douglas Grunther: And that nature is is coming back at us, not because she's angry with us because this is what she does when things are out of balance.
00:45:24.520 --> 00:45:24.940 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Balance.
00:45:24.940 --> 00:45:26.190 Douglas Grunther: Rebalance it.
00:45:26.190 --> 00:45:36.890 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And it kind of goes back to where we started with quantum physics that this idea of separation versus connection, right? That we're actually much more connected to everything.
00:45:37.420 --> 00:45:39.129 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: then we are separate from it.
00:45:39.130 --> 00:45:59.419 Douglas Grunther: And not just abstractly and idealistically, although that's important and philosophically, which is important. But empirically. There's a wonderful scientific theory called the Gaia theory which I talked about in the 3rd section of my book, which is which created by a chemist, a Phd. In chemist, and his his co-developer is someone I
00:45:59.420 --> 00:46:21.730 Douglas Grunther: finally got to understand in my book. It took me a long time. Her name is Lynn Margulis. She should be much better known. Her nickname was the angry Earth mother, because she loved men but wouldn't take crap from anybody, and she got her Phd. In biology during the sixties, when it was a man's world, and not only was she one of the few women getting a Phd. In biology. Her thesis
00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:25.909 Douglas Grunther: was very controversial. It turned out to be true, and it's
00:46:26.030 --> 00:46:27.060 Douglas Grunther: crucial.
00:46:27.070 --> 00:46:32.110 Douglas Grunther: It should be part of every education, yet very few people know about it. What she proved
00:46:32.470 --> 00:46:35.249 Douglas Grunther: is that at the microbial level
00:46:35.630 --> 00:46:47.079 Douglas Grunther: well before there were us before there were mammals before there were plants, insects, microbes figured out. It took them millions of years through something called self organization, a process of nature.
00:46:47.540 --> 00:47:03.329 Douglas Grunther: They developed photosynthesis which could be argued is the greatest technology ever invented on planet Earth. And we didn't invent it. I always thought plants developed it, but she proved that microbes developed it.
00:47:03.370 --> 00:47:04.470 Douglas Grunther: and
00:47:04.760 --> 00:47:08.010 Douglas Grunther: what she showed was that on the surface.
00:47:08.230 --> 00:47:11.329 Douglas Grunther: as with nature all around us.
00:47:11.760 --> 00:47:34.040 Douglas Grunther: it looks like most of what happens is predator prey, competition, survival of the fittest. Okay on the surface. That's true. What she proved is that underneath the surface of the predator prey 0 sum game of in order for one person to win another person has to lose, and warfare is a deeper.
00:47:34.200 --> 00:47:38.610 Douglas Grunther: more powerful, though not easily seen
00:47:39.630 --> 00:47:44.229 Douglas Grunther: pull of nature towards novel, more complex collaboration.
00:47:45.340 --> 00:47:48.690 Douglas Grunther: Without that inherent part of nature.
00:47:49.120 --> 00:48:01.000 Douglas Grunther: kicking and screaming, sometimes hard to see, sometimes especially with the 24 7 News cycle of all the violence and hatred going on around the world. The fact is that underneath that
00:48:01.150 --> 00:48:12.039 Douglas Grunther: Nature's intelligence is pulling us, kicking and screaming towards more complex novel forms of collaboration, and you and I are communicating over one right now.
00:48:12.040 --> 00:48:21.369 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right? Right? Okay, let's hold it there for a moment. When you take our last break when we come back. I know you said, you're not a Futurist, but I would love to
00:48:21.980 --> 00:48:30.219 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: hear you prognosticate a little bit because you you pull together such great patterns. I'm curious as to your view of the future.
00:48:30.380 --> 00:48:31.620 Douglas Grunther: I'll do my best.
00:48:31.620 --> 00:48:45.499 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Awesome. So everyone, please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity. Our guest this hour has been Douglas Grunther, author of the book, the quantum and the dream, and we'll be right back to tie it all up in just a moment.
00:50:52.480 --> 00:51:15.079 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So, Douglas, I have a quick question for you before I get into the future. There's 1 topic I noticed that's missing from the book that a lot of people who talk around these topics in generals talk about these days, which is psychedelics and and a lot of people's view of psychedelics as sort of a tool for increasing or
00:51:15.140 --> 00:51:20.189 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: upgrading human consciousness. What's your view on psychedelics?
00:51:21.013 --> 00:51:27.989 Douglas Grunther: Well, I have chosen not yet to do psychedelic just because I was never found myself in the right environment to do it.
00:51:28.950 --> 00:51:31.029 Douglas Grunther: I've always been a fan of cannabis.
00:51:31.760 --> 00:51:38.560 Douglas Grunther: I love listening to Terrence Mckenna. I've learned a lot from him, and he was a huge advocate for psychedelics.
00:51:39.060 --> 00:51:45.220 Douglas Grunther: And when you get into the difference between the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere of the brain, which is the 1st section of my book.
00:51:45.540 --> 00:51:53.500 Douglas Grunther: Psychedelics are one of the excellent ways to shift to the right hemisphere of the brain, I have chosen to use dream work.
00:51:54.550 --> 00:52:23.979 Douglas Grunther: self, hypnosis, creative visualization, contemplation, but primarily dream work and creative visualization to do it. I'm open to psychedelics. I know people who have had tremendously important experiences with it. And I've read books by people who have convinced me that they have discovered great wisdom through psychedelics. So I say, any any doorway into the deeper creative center of the human mind. I'm all for.
00:52:23.980 --> 00:52:27.111 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I was curious.
00:52:27.500 --> 00:52:31.129 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: so there are a lot of people. I mean, if we look at the world. Today
00:52:31.300 --> 00:52:50.560 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: there's more polarization than ever before. It feels like we're teetering on the edge of World War 3. Sometimes people are stressed out. There are epidemics of mental health and and addiction and all kinds of stuff going on.
00:52:51.780 --> 00:52:53.469 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I've had many
00:52:53.590 --> 00:53:00.740 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: people who I consider tuned in and and tapped in on that spiritual level. And I always like to ask.
00:53:00.830 --> 00:53:12.529 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Where do you see things going from here like not just in the immediate, like, you know, next year this year, but like 5, 1015 years from now.
00:53:12.950 --> 00:53:18.339 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: what do you think is the path for humanity? Are you more hopeful, or are you more pessimistic?
00:53:18.340 --> 00:53:20.669 Douglas Grunther: I'm more hopeful, and here's the reason.
00:53:21.109 --> 00:53:25.469 Douglas Grunther: It gets into the distinction which we haven't had a chance to go into. I'll do it very briefly
00:53:25.790 --> 00:53:50.570 Douglas Grunther: the 1st section of my book, the dissension between the left and right hemispheres of our brains. We now have Mcluhan famously said back in the sixties that the reason people found him mysterious is because he's talking from the right hemisphere, and they're listening in the left hemisphere, but only recently, through the brilliant work of Dr. Ian Mcgilchrist and his book. Well, 2 books, really. But
00:53:50.971 --> 00:54:15.189 Douglas Grunther: on the subject, he has over 1,800 footnotes. He's a neurologist, psychiatrist and philosopher, and his insights are amazing, and they've been verified that the left hemisphere of our brain is the one that dominates our culture. And the reason is, is the part of our brain that's analytical and learns about the world by taking things apart like a mechanism. Right? And so we thought
00:54:15.590 --> 00:54:26.220 Douglas Grunther: the spiritual people been telling us for millennia. That's not true, that that to understand the world break it apart into simpler parts, so we can put it back together and create great technologies.
00:54:26.710 --> 00:54:45.589 Douglas Grunther: The right hemisphere of our brain is geographically larger. It's physically larger, it's more complexly wired. Why did evolution give us that the right hemisphere of our brain doesn't analyze it, understands the world holistically and intuitively. It takes everything in and gets a sense of it.
00:54:45.590 --> 00:54:46.020 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:54:46.020 --> 00:55:01.199 Douglas Grunther: It loves being in thinking about things that are ambiguous and uncertain, because that's where great art and great insight comes from the lack of certainty and consistency. The left hemisphere can't tolerate ambiguity.
00:55:01.200 --> 00:55:02.670 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right, so.
00:55:03.320 --> 00:55:24.739 Douglas Grunther: Up. Until recently the left hemisphere is dominated, and it's given us magnificent technologies. The invention of antibiotics alone has virtually doubled the lifespan of human beings in the last 100 years. It's also now destroying the very ecology we need to breathe on this planet. Because all right. So
00:55:25.200 --> 00:55:38.940 Douglas Grunther: here's the Point AI. And if AI has lots of problems, we don't know where it's going, it could be apoplectic. But what does AI do it? It's better than we are already
00:55:39.090 --> 00:55:41.560 Douglas Grunther: at gathering information.
00:55:41.640 --> 00:55:51.519 Douglas Grunther: analyzing that information and coming up with threads in it. Right? We were the ones who use that. That's what made us the most powerful plant on the planet.
00:55:51.780 --> 00:55:56.590 Douglas Grunther: AI is already better at it than we are, and we created it. So
00:55:56.810 --> 00:56:00.390 Douglas Grunther: people say, Oh, it's going to take over jobs. It's going to take over our lives.
00:56:01.310 --> 00:56:02.200 Douglas Grunther: The
00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:19.599 Douglas Grunther: computer is analogous to the left hemisphere of our brain. We're not needed for analysis, gathering information as much ever before, because computers are better at it. We're needed for the right hemisphere capabilities which computers don't have the ability to imagine
00:56:19.600 --> 00:56:42.130 Douglas Grunther: to come up with new ways of feeling things. Computer AI is not sentient. It can't feel now. The fact that we're emotional beings is why we have wars and anger and all the craziness going on in our political and economic system around the world. It's that same emotion that makes us human. And in my proposal.
00:56:42.300 --> 00:56:46.389 Douglas Grunther: the purpose of AI showing up here in the 21st century.
00:56:46.680 --> 00:56:54.770 Douglas Grunther: It's Nature's intelligence which is more powerful than our intelligence or computers. Intelligence. We're all embedded. We're all in the same bed together.
00:56:55.030 --> 00:56:57.150 Douglas Grunther: Which is why I created a formula.
00:56:57.270 --> 00:57:10.399 Douglas Grunther: which is that the proper integration and collaboration between the human mind, primarily the right hemisphere and the computer brain, which is more left hemisphere with nature
00:57:10.460 --> 00:57:13.120 Douglas Grunther: equals the new Renaissance.
00:57:13.360 --> 00:57:17.010 Douglas Grunther: I think it's logical that we're gonna figure out
00:57:17.130 --> 00:57:43.229 Douglas Grunther: that we're not needed anymore, like we used to be to go out and get information and analyze. The computers do that. We're needed to come up with new ways of thinking about who we are, what we're doing here, how we connect to each other. And more and most importantly, how do we connect with Nature's intelligence? We were born out of nature's intelligence. We're not apart from it. We're embedded in it.
00:57:43.230 --> 00:57:43.900 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:57:44.230 --> 00:57:48.500 Douglas Grunther: Gave us. Nature's intelligence gave our human brain the ability.
00:57:48.580 --> 00:57:57.959 Douglas Grunther: The most important ability we have is not to analyze, that was important. Computers do it better than us. Our most important ability going forward
00:57:58.260 --> 00:58:03.989 Douglas Grunther: is to go deeper into the dark center of the human mind, the unconscious, which is where
00:58:04.600 --> 00:58:14.819 Douglas Grunther: every psychology degree is where the creativity and and intuitions come from. But we're scared of the unconscious because our culture doesn't like the dark. It always wants to only
00:58:15.020 --> 00:58:17.530 Douglas Grunther: go to what we can be more certain about.
00:58:17.550 --> 00:58:18.500 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:58:18.500 --> 00:58:23.259 Douglas Grunther: One of the key principles of quantum theory is the uncertainty, principle.
00:58:23.260 --> 00:58:24.010 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right.
00:58:24.580 --> 00:58:30.189 Douglas Grunther: Where, how much great art, how many great new ideas would we have if everything was certain.
00:58:30.190 --> 00:58:32.130 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right, right, right, right.
00:58:32.130 --> 00:58:34.749 Douglas Grunther: I believe that kicking and screaming
00:58:35.250 --> 00:58:40.540 Douglas Grunther: because of the dangers and apocalyptic consequences of global warming.
00:58:40.810 --> 00:59:00.479 Douglas Grunther: because computers are already better than us at analyzing empirical evidence. We are going to figure out more and more of us to shift to the right hemisphere of our brain. That's where our dreams come in. That's where our creative visualizations come in. And Albert Einstein considered the greatest scientist of the 20th century
00:59:00.860 --> 00:59:08.629 Douglas Grunther: never worked in a scientific physical laboratory. His laboratory was the right hemisphere of his brain.
00:59:08.810 --> 00:59:17.949 Douglas Grunther: He created visual experiment. I talk about this in my book, he said. Quote, and this is authenticated. My entire career is based on a dream I had when I was 11 years old.
00:59:17.960 --> 00:59:19.550 Douglas Grunther: Why weren't we taught that.
00:59:19.940 --> 00:59:20.400 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah.
00:59:20.400 --> 00:59:21.870 Douglas Grunther: Now.
00:59:22.200 --> 00:59:48.619 Douglas Grunther: I'm not saying that you and I or your listeners are going to come up with something as important as relativity through our dreams. But history has been changed by dreams, and individual lives have been changed by our dreams, our creative visualizations, our intuitive imagination, our intuitive wisdom, our holistic sensibility. I believe that AI is emerging here in the 21st century as a mirror
00:59:48.890 --> 00:59:52.770 Douglas Grunther: pointing at us and saying, Okay, human beings.
00:59:53.620 --> 01:00:10.709 Douglas Grunther: you have to go deeper into what it means to be homo sapiens sapiens, which is our official title we gave ourselves, which means the wise person sapiens means wise. We're homo sapiens sapiens. According to biology and genealogy.
01:00:10.710 --> 01:00:11.240 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Right, right.
01:00:11.240 --> 01:00:12.820 Douglas Grunther: Are we going to live up to it?
01:00:13.840 --> 01:00:27.740 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We'll see we'll see. Well, Douglas, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I feel like we barely scratched the surface. I could talk to you for hours. I really wanted to thank you for taking the time to come on my show today.
01:00:27.740 --> 01:00:36.380 Douglas Grunther: Well, it was great to be with you, and I love your work, and I know we'll both continue to do the best we can to bring about a new Renaissance.
01:00:36.380 --> 01:01:02.399 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Absolutely absolutely. Once again Douglas Gunther, author of the book, The quantum in the dream you can learn more about him at douglasgrunther.com, and just one last little notification I forgot to mention this last week. Remember, this weekend is the Spirit Plant Medicine Conference at spiritplantmedicine.com. If you use the coupon code. Tcc for the conscious consultant.
01:01:02.420 --> 01:01:05.930 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: 2024, you'll get a 35% discount.
01:01:06.180 --> 01:01:09.650 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Douglas. Thank you so much. I wish you all the best with your work.
01:01:09.670 --> 01:01:26.170 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Thank you, my listeners, for tuning in every week without you there is no show. Stay, tuned coming up next. It's Dr. Richard Lewis Miller and his show Mindbody, health and politics, followed later today by Frank Harrison and his show Frank about health, and we will talk to you all next week.
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