The Sophia Lectures with Dr Iain McGilchrist - Lecture 1: Division and Union
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Dr Iain McGilchrist delivers “Division and Union”, the first lecture in his three-part series, Wholeness, Imagination, and the Cosmos. This thought-provoking talk delves into the relationship between opposites, parts, and wholes, offering a profound exploration of reality and our connection to it. Drawing on biology and philosophy, Dr McGilchrist invites us to see the world-and ourselves-in a new light.
Recorded in March 2024 during the Sophia Lectures at Ralston College’s Savannah campus, this annual series features leading thinkers engaging with the perennial questions of human existence.
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Thank you, Dr McGilchrist, for allowing this teaching to be available to all. Appreciation towards Ralston College for hosting and approving this. A great privilege to view.
Dr. McGilchrist there's very few people I could listen to for hours, but you, sir, are one of those.
Thank you Stephen for sharing this wonderful lecture, sitting here by the fire in a wee cottage on a windy dark evening in the west of Ireland, you have made it magical, looking forward so much to the next one, thank you.
I like your description of being in a little cottage....
Hello from the South West. Looking forward to this lecture. Stay warm.
👏 for you describe nicely your atmosphere and situation seems real feel like I am there and feel the smell of Ireland however I am in India
This lecture is a gift. Thank you for providing. May the Universe repay you in-kind.
Thank you Ralston College for making this available to us. Wonderful lecture.
You know what the most amazing thing is about Dr. McGilchrist? That he proposes some original thought. Or, he’s deeply thought about what he is saying. So refreshing, on the channels of media that often seem to regurgitate commonly accepted knowledge we take for granted and material we’ve already heard❤‼️🙏We’ll I am going to listen 3 times so my puny right brain can absorb😂
I was at this speech and have been waiting for this to be released to watch again. Thank you!
And on that lovely end note I just realised it was the dawn of a new year. Many blessings to you all for 2025. Thanks Dr. and Sir Stephen of Ralston 😊
I have long adored Sophia. The Silence before Logos. Philosophia. Yes!
Thank you for the gift that you are Dr. McGilchrist. Your insights resonate in the core of my being and a recognition of the profound Absolute TRUTH. Blessings to you! 🙏
Goodness, this was one of the most brilliant lectures that i've seen from Iain. Thank you so much for making this available!
I realized after this that my fundamental alienation has been perhaps being right brain oriented in an opposite culture.
People who watch this will enjoy reading Gregg Braden's new book titled: THE PURE HUMAN. I think Iain is just THE nicest man and I love these talks of his.
What he did with the animal nature??? Sublimated it in hypocrisy or cynicism?
Thank you for this! I always hear whispers of Alan Watts in Iain's lectures, it's heartening. Love all your work! Grazie mille!
Brilliant!
Melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre
A pleasure and privilege to have access to these lectures. Very familiar with Dr.Iain McGilchrist but more exposure is always enriching.
A most profound intellectual.
Going to college at 12.
I was busy just mapping infinite social worlds at 12: drawing maps of imaginary worlds and realizing that there is only one way for anthropomorphic worlds to survive.
absolutely great! thank you team at Ralston for making this availlable. love from india.
A fascinating intriguing talk by a true educationalist.
FIX SUBTITLES/CAPTIONS - Please add punctuation and correct mispellings in the auto-generated subtitles. You can easily do this by going to your channel (Ralston College) and clicking the "manage videos" button. Select this video and then the subtitles option from the menu on the left. Then make any desired corrections to the auto-generated text, and click save (or publish?). It won't take very long to do this. You could also upload the text of a transcript and the AI will try to synchronize it with the audio (but not very well in my experience, and fixing that takes longer).
With the brilliance of this speaker, the importance of the topic(s) presented, the careful A-V production, and the beauty of the setting, decent subtitles are called for.
Thanks to all who made this event possible and for sharing freely it with the world. I look forward to the rest of the series.
Here's a sample of the auto-generated captions (from the start):
you're all very welcome to tonight's first Sophia lecture of the
2024 Sophia lecture series it's my privilege briefly I promise to introduce
you tonight to roson college to the Sophia lectures and most importantly to
our distinguished Sophia lecturer Dr Ian melist Rolston college is a Revival and
a reinvention of the University it seeks simply speaking to emulate the greatest
Thank you for this suggestion, and we apologize for the oversight. We have gone in to correct errors and the changes should be live shortly. Thank you also for engaging with this content.
@@RalstonCollegeSavannah Ralston again shows us that the pursuit of excellence is not dead. How refreshing!
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Very entertaining and insightful
Thank you! Please feel free to visit our website to discover over offerings: www.ralston.ac
Thank you so much for posting this wonderful lecture! Best wishes, Barbara, Slovenia
Thank you! This was brilliant.
Brilliant and beautiful as expected.
Just got my copy of “Irreducible” by Federico Faggin. I was hooked by the end of the preface. Loving it! I suspect, if you “grok” this lecture you’d like Irreducible as well. Much in common, dovetailing nicely. Both men are brilliant.
All Soul's, Oxford are the creme de la creme!
Iain McGilchrist's interests include -
Psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy, history, theology, literature and poetry. Whew!!
I am enjoying this video. Thank you.
A being of true humility….
Its also for the masses❤
Presentation starts at 07:25.
Thank you so much for making Dr McGilchrist’s lecture available. I found the ideas very rich.
It is our pleasure! Please feel free to visit our website to discover over offerings: www.ralston.ac.
After watching this wonderful presentation and hearing someone immediately mention belonging to a control group that wants to work with “Majik and Enchantment” makes me fairly happy to see that kind of nonsense brought to “Light”. From the self proclaimed “enlightened “ who desire to be important and in “control” of others . to the working man that may either become a jail keeper or store keeper or bread thief due to hard circumstances . We are all ONE. And having anyone try to control the masses by thinking they know what’s best only brings tyrannical regimes.
Thank you from India ❤❤
This is a MOTION-BASED Uni-verse!
Spatial Transformations make time.
There is no personification like Father Time who allows us to move. (Its the wrong way around)
And what we call the second, minute, etc. are just ABSTRACT units we use to convey progression of spatial changes which all have their own periodicity.
26:00
Good point!
I like mechanics. But seeing what type of thought-line it leads to has me very concerned with the field as a whole!
1:27:00
Order is from the center.
But the true magic is at the perimeter.
1:38:00
Thanks for hosting!!!
Starts 7:19
Thank you, the intro was unbearable
Program starts at 07:10
Continuity is rock n roll.
Here are the key points from the video:
* Time as a Continuum: Time is not a linear succession of moments, but rather a continuous flow.
* Hemisphere Theory: The left and right hemispheres of the brain have distinct modes of processing information.
* The Importance of Balance: Finding a balance between left- and right-hemisphere thinking is crucial for human flourishing.
* The Nature of Reality: Reality is characterized by both unity and diversity, division and union.
* The Role of Consciousness: Consciousness and matter are not separate entities, but rather different manifestations of the same phenomenon.
* The Importance of Imagination and Awe: Cultivating a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world is essential for human life.
Summary:
The video explores the theme of "Division and Union," examining how these concepts manifest in various aspects of human experience, from the human brain to the nature of reality itself. Dr. McGilchrist emphasizes the importance of finding a balance between different modes of thinking and cultivating a greater sense of wonder and respect for the natural world.
Wow- congrats on Sophia ……love this topic - towards the super complexity consciousness - love opening message . Thank thank you- inspiring -wisdom and spirit of the universe - over the meantime dumb politics.
By the way - my mother’s names was Sophia and so today i sent the lecture to my two sons so we may this this great new inspiring ritual for every New Year’s Eve in memory of her absence; Before she died of cancer I asked her what was this all this about and she answered that we came here to be purified.
So to me finding this lecture today was a great way to be reverent of all that is this perennial knowledge that decorates our inner aspirations to the good the true and beautiful as my mothers stands for SOPHIA (behind the Veil of the material) , like plato said - the absolute archetypes . We need these aspirations towards our better angels. What a way to start the YEAR 2025 ! I am so so grateful! May my sons carry on the tradition . This was such a great idea, Stephen
7:25 actually starts
The many in the One. Brilliant.
In the beginning
I am that I am
Created that which is
From that which is not
The spirit of
I am who I am
Moved on the depths
Of the formless and void
Moving by spirit
The essence of pattern
The image of existence
Onto which all things
Kinds and likenesses
Are called to map
All meaning and purpose
I am what I am
Spoke in fractal terms
The geometric shapes of
All things real, material
Being the observer
Collapsing the wave
Of non being function
Of all created things
Kinds and likenesses of being
In the simultaneity of the pattern
Of being
I am that I am
Divided light from darkness
A cosmological constant
Of darkness moving
Faster than light
And light moving
At least time
Through the pattern
Now known as the face
Of the deep
I am that I am
Thus created by moving
Speaking and observing
Calling to meaning
Dividing time-space-energy
To form the kinds
Likenesses and images
Of all being
where is this from
@
It is a transposition of pragmatic communication.
If you mean what is the interpretive source that would be me.
It’s like the Nag Hamadi for today’s audience- nice work 😁
@@happygucci5094 it is fractal.
Thanks
The speakers in these excerpts are aiming to convey the idea that understanding the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate elements is fundamental to grasping the nature of reality and achieving a sense of wholeness. They argue that division and union, differentiation and integration, are not opposing forces but rather complementary aspects of a single, dynamic process that drives creation, evolution, and our understanding of the world.
🤝👍wielkie👍PiĘĆ👍DZiĘKUjĘ👍🤝
Did Ralston speed up this edited video for UA-cam? It doesn’t sound at all like Iain on occasion throughout the video and I caught a glimpse of a 1.4x which I could not duplicate on my own no matter how I tried. I went on to the web version and it seemed similar to the posted video. Most of it was fine but I thought if Ralston could clarify this I could further push back on UA-cam. Not that I might get anywhere with my singular issue with my particular world right at this moment in an infinite timeline but thanks for listening.
to relate this to the political upheaval we’re experiencing; the mysterious missing substance is variety. and the problem is simply algorithmic. regulate the algorithms (which are a form of censorship for profit). technically speaking, that can be done in just hours. politically speaking, it can be legislated, or done in court, and has bipartisan appeal. allowing us to be exposed to diverse content and opposing opinions again is a major (though counterintuitive) step toward reuniting the whole.
Feedback: The constant change of camera angles is very distracting and they feel very rough (cut! cut! cut!) especially when changing mid sentence/thought. I would have liked for more close up shots so that I could feel more connected to the speaker, rather than constant shots of the audience. I'm a very visual person, so all the splicing is disruptive. It makes it hard to watch. The audio is good tho. So I stopped watching at the 15 min mark and started listening. Basically... post production made it too unstable.--- Something to take into account when editing videos, especially lectures, is that many people speed them up, and so if things are done choppy, it makes it even worse, the problem- cough- expands- cough.
Teach our children well, outdoors,child led, non industrial sized, smaller classes, no hierarchy, good teachers who encourage original thought and cekebrate children Give 16 year olds the vote and gice them their own commitees to gather and debate.
The whole is greater than the sum. A herd is more than a count of beasts.
As above...🧠☯️🫀
A thanks for the mention of Walnuts. ( a subtle mention which gives no one the clue of a missing clue-say hello to no one)
A thanks for the mention that morphology is not specified in the genome.
I find schizophrenics amazing people with whom to carry on a conversation.
But why are some people able to recall their entire lives while most of us can’t remember what we ate last week.
How can someone instantaneously record and permanently recall entire city scapes?
How can a spider extend its mind via its web? Is its mind outside of its body?
The instrument is not the note
The orchestra is not the symphony
The wires are not the electricity
The brain is not the mind
The universe is not the math
Consider:
Memory in the nervous system is a redo of immune memory.
Memory is in the proteins.
Amyloid plaques are prion ( misfolds related to energy acquisition:utilization in nervous systems cells) misfolds dampen signals. Signal are not simply a travel down a axon or dendrite.
The whole is ever greater than the sum of it's constituents.
Life is the All in One in All.
Life functions consciously and unconsciously simultaneously. Therefore, consciousness is how something does something (adverb) - not what something is (noun). Reification is a popular logical fallacy.
🌟
Non political and open discussion must be restored before science is destroyed by greed, censorship and bias. Open respectful disagrement in discussions are nessesary for progress and development. Censorship comes before dictatorship. We are all guilty if we dont allow other opinions than our own, because it leads to the end of scientific thinking and development.
It sounds like consciousness is right brain and matter is left brain.
I have zero left brain
I'd say this whole comment is left brain. Things aren't simple and 1:1 like this.
A cap on how much can be sued for relative & commensurate with the damages. Rather than game by lawyers for Gain & Greed, as advertised in every other Billboard in the US East Coast.
Shout out to....
Bro Panic
Bobby Hemmitt
Dr Phil Valentine
Bro C. Freeman El
Dr Josef Ben-Jochannan
Amen Ra KamKam
Dr Khallid Muhammad
Dr Ann Brown
Dr Delbert Blair
Dr Timothy Owens Moore
Dr Malachi Z York
Dr Chancellor Williams
Jordan Maxwell
Dr Ivan Van Sertima
Richard D King MD
Rev Ray Hagins
Zoe Williams
Young Pharaoh
PapaDuck
Runoko Rashidi
Dr Walter Williams
Grand Sheik Taj Tarik Bey
Bill Donahue
Cheikh Anta Diop
Shahrazad Ali
Gabriel Oyibo
Kwame Ture
Amos Wilson
Marimba Ani
Booker T. Coleman
Williams Mackey
Rod Hayes
Prof. James Small
Dr. Na'im Akbar
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing
Dr John Henrik Clarke
Dr Wade Nobles
Neely Fuller Jr.
Steve Cokely
Gil Scott-Heron
Franz Omar Fanon
Edward Said
Daniel Barenboim
I'm wondering, though, are all apparent dichotomies the same (surely not): light/dark/finite/infinite...ok, what about potential/actual...do we not come with this one into the gravitation pull of the principle of non-contradiction?
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
While I really appreciate Ralston College making these excellent lecture available on-line, I can’t help but question the appropriateness of the term “Sophia” as a category of these lectures. Has anyone raised this issue at all or do they simply take for granted the complex meanings of Sophia and its derivatives sophism and sophistry, and whether truth can be sought from the art of speaking, i.e. rhetoric (no matter on whatever subjects). Was Socrates’ death an insignificant event in the history of the Western World?
It's not a Yin and a Yang, it's a yinyang.
What if there's something else that doesn't belong, like in addiction yang yang wrong?🎉 just wondering 🎉🎉
Gaudiya Vaishnavism teaches the doctrine of "simultaneous oneness and difference" of God and His creation, meaning the Creator is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. We can experience God in everything and everywhere, yet we are separated at the same time. Though we return to God's world in oneness of love and purpose, we retain our individuality, as described in this lecture, it is all about relationships, and we must have our individuality to relate, not that we merge into the oneness and dissolve our individual identity.
Charlies Munger says that Berkshire is maybe the most de-centralized conglomerate. When they buy a candy company, they don't suddenly try to pretend that they are suddenly the candy experts, but they try to allow the candy expert to be the candy expert. Another way to look at it is trade offs, the more alarmist a culture becomes the less it is allowed to use human judgement in moving forward.
Integration (union, syntropy) is dual to differentiation (division, entropy).
Wholes (generalization, waves) are dual to parts (localization, particles) -- quantum duality.
Left brain dominance is dual to right brain dominance -- Hemispheres.
"Always two there are" -- Yoda.
Syntropy (knowledge) is dual to increasing entropy (lack of knowledge) -- the 4th law of thermodynamics!
"Physics is what we know and metaphysics is what we do not know" -- Bertrand Russell.
Science is what we know and metascience is what we do not know -- knowledge is dual.
Space is dual to time -- Einstein.
Starts 8 minutes in
I believe the Iroquois are in North America
Everything is brilliant except for his opinion on litigation in the US. The problem in the US, is not that everybody can sue everybody else, which is not true - not everybody has the money for this - but that the very wealthy are getting away with corruption and abuses of power precisely because they can pay for the lawyers and in reality - they have manipulated the system so much by the immersion of their money in Washington (bribery is legal in Washington, literally, something they themselves were able to make into law with their money), but that they have been able to open up so many loopholes, that the system is lopsided. The billionaire class is absolutely controlling the rest. And I don’t need to say that today we are pretty much an absolute oligarchy, as you can see if you have been paying attention to the real news lately. There is an upsurge of lawlessness in America, not tightening of controls. The controls are now only for the lower portion of society, and almost none for the very top.
All is One = All is Chaos = All is Satan.
What is the difference between a human brain and a shape shifting octopus?
Really hope if the aim really is for ALL human beings to flourish and for the pursuit of perennial truths these guys ain’t Zionists.
Tamas, Rajas & Sattva. Stop, Go, imagine. The Brain🤦♀️🤣💃
it always SHE, HE comes later..
My goodness. Succinct Bullet points could’ve covered this unnecessarily wordy indulgence !
Wordy, yes but why unnecessarily? And why can’t you make your own bullet points?
It would be optimal to have a woman speak on Sophia.
Include women in discussions about wisdom! Is that a proposal? A proposal that presumes that it is wise!
Women are excellent at occasionally performing a wise act, a wise deed. But a discussion about wisdom. Such a challenge brings us closer to an event that, in the feelings it can generate, is equal to proposals to start a general nuclear war.
When it comes to splitting or division - in every story about it, one should start from establishing reproduction with the presence of the sexes, instead of simple division. Both at the same time: the female sex and the male sex. What are the roles of both, help me remember, I pray, Creator!
Now I understand almost perfectly the expression "gibberish mumbo jumbo"... It's Blather in all its pomp and glória!
This was the comment I was looking for, well done. See if there was anybody else here thought the same, not many. Rennaissance Man what a joke.
Thank you for demonstrating right brain hemisphere damage so clearly.
@@michaelstone1122How sad!
I pray that your eyes are opened.. God bless and guide you
@@michaelstone1122Mumbo jumbo? What, for example?
Does Ian McGilchrist know about Sabbatia Zevi and Jacob Frank,Talmud,Kabbalah?
blah blah blah
Read the book! The background is similar to that of Onlyfans models, with the starry lighting. I do enjoy his work but probably the proper English more than anything.