Brain things that are blowing my mind (and vice versa)

The other series of articles/stories/videos blowing my mind is still active here (we’re few shy of 100 links!), creating this new space as an ode to just Mind and Brain things with a slightly more scientific incline.

As always, I will keep updating this page with new links that blow my mind!

1. From the field of psychedelics — their role in building neuroplasticity
2. Robert Sapolsky’s lecture on human behaviour, the whole series on youtube is cool, alternatively class summaries can be read on his website
3. I have to say Philosophy is drawing me in, a really cool series on introduction to Philosophy in general but the real question captured in this video — Where does the mind reside?
4. Consciousness is a hot topic of brain science and we are nowhere close to answering any of our questions, but in the meanwhile it helps to keep posing questions. “How Do I Know I’m Not the Only Conscious Being in the Universe?”
5. Everything is ‘real’ when we can blame a neuron for it. In latest reality, hanger is real!
6. ‘nuf said! Gut — Brain ftw! How your belly controls your brain.
7. The kind of year wrap that I appreciate — The year in Biology.
8. When science meets rest of the world, magic happens, this one definitely belongs here for all the incredible research work included in the article — Energy and How to get it?
9. How would you describe a ‘human-like experience’ (what is called a ‘psychological phenomena’ in philosophical terms) to an alien? Can you describe it? Of course, we have already tried to.
10. Finding your way out of bias, one article at a time: What are your invisible barriers?
11. Drama no less than any daily soap but in the world of science. Hold your seats this will keep you gripped right till the end: How one (ambitious) guy shaped the entire incentive model of scientific research!
12. An incredible take on choice and free will in this fictional story from Ted Chiang’s book Exhalation — Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom.
13. What a great podcast! Mind you it is nothing new or sensational that has not been said or covered in a better way before, but it is still such a great reminder, especially for me, of my spiritual thoughts about the mind and the brain, thoughts that are still there but enjoyed a bit of re-jigging. An incredible collection of insights into the power of our brain and how little we practice it. I remember this conversation I once had with this brain midway through the pandemic and telling him how I had found the ‘key’ and that it was amazing in a few respects — one that a key exists, two it lies within each one of us and three that it is such a liberating and empowering knowledge to embody. This podcast reignites all those feelings and the feeling of awe at how incredible this power is and how incredibly in control we are, much much more than we credit ourselves to be in. Exceptional. May we all always remember this and use it to our strength always!
14. I am adding this article in ‘brain things’ because I think it is a perfect example of how to hack your brain so you ‘work with yourself, rather than work on yourself’. I resonated so hard with this process he has described and in many isolated ways I have been on the same trajectory of thoughts in the order he described them, I had, however, not reached the part he describes towards the end and that blows my mind because it makes absolute complete sense.