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Iain McGilchrist, Part 2: Hemispheres, Culture, and Cosmic Consciousness (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-04 00:07:35
Edited:
2026-05-04 00:12:52
Imported:
2026-05
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  • Iain McGilchrist (Part 2).mp3

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Content

In this episode, we return to Iain McGilchrist to flesh out his cosmic spirituality as he spirals upwards from his binary hemispheric model. There is a simple rule in McGilchrist's world: everything he likes is due to the subtle, nuanced, and deeply sophisticated right-brain thinking. As luck would have it, his preferred right hemisphere aligns with meaning, beauty, religion, and everything worthwhile, while the left-brain (pffft) is responsible for reductionism, modernity, and most of the problems in your life.

From this alleged neuroscientific model, his theory expands with admirable ambition. Civilisations rise and fall depending on which hemisphere they inhabit. Ancient societies were rich, connected, and properly attuned to the right brain, but the modern world has leaned into left-brain thinking and become mechanical and spiritually bankrupt. The details we are assured are very complex, but the moral of the story is clear.

Scientific evidence features on occasion, but mostly in a decorative capacity or as part of a parable to how scientists are in the process of being baffled by mystical forces. Hence, we learn that decapitated worms retain all their memories, Nobel Prizes have been awarded that prove a mystical direction in evolution, and that near death experiences have established that memories can be formed when the brain is not functioning.

Alongside all this hard science, we also move into more spiritual realms and discover that artificial intelligence is likely to be channelling demons, that schizophrenia might be (at least in part) caused by malign spiritual forces who are treating our brains as a luxury resort, and that exorcised demons prefer to communicate via text message. No really...

Ultimately, what is most important is that we all recognise that McGilchrist's bespoke theology with its bespoke metaphysics, bespoke biological teleology, and bespoke panentheist philosophy is really very impressive. Moreover, if you do not find any of this compelling, McGilchrist is sad to inform you that this itself is an indication that you are stuck in the wrong mode of thinking and are failing to recognise its profundity.

And if that doesn't work, then let's just say it was all a metaphor anyway!

Sources

Alex O'Connor: Why Evolution Gave You Two Brains - Iain McGilchrist

Jonathan Pageau: Artificial Intelligence, Possession, and Mental Illness - Dr. Iain McGilchrist

Think Faith: Philosopher Iain McGilchrist DEBATES neuroscientist Anil Seth on God & minds | Uncommon Ground

Corballis, M. C. (2014). Left brain, right brain: facts and fantasies. PLoS biology, 12(1), e1001767.

Carson, A. (2010). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. By Iain McGilchrist. Yale University Press. 2009. US $38.00 (hb). 608 pp. ISBN: 9780300148787. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 196(6), 498-498.

De Haan, D. (2019). McGilchrist’s hemispheric homunculi. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 368-379.

Spezio, M. (2019). McGilchrist and hemisphere lateralization: a neuroscientific and metaanalytic assessment. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 387-399.

Shomrat, T., & Levin, M. (2013). An automated training paradigm reveals long-term memory in planarians and its persistence through head regeneration. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(20), 3799-3810.

Comments

Lillie

🥳 always the best timing, thanks Chris :)

Yoko Swagman

I appreciate the awe of nature every day looking out my window while my AI coding agents are spinning, then I marvel the coding agents, rinse and repeat.

Ben Warner

It’s not that the two hemispheres theory is completely wrong, that would be some very left brain thinking. But it would be fair to say that Ian McGilchrist is not not wrong.

john statham

One minute in, and the #Mattrix has fluffed McGilchrist’s name thrice! Doing the Jesus pronunciation incorrectly, when one of the most famous Australians of all time, Adam (not pronounced Jesus) Gilchrist can only mean one thing: Australia is indeed a made up place.

Brice F

All these weirdos love to casually dismiss ideas or just say “everyone knows” something that’s totally batshit. Instead of lab leak, UFOs being real, or election denial; this time we learn that no one respectable supports materialism and that demons are real Someone needs to address the state of psychiatrists with McGilchrist, Jordan Peterson, and Dr K. The Dark Triad

Nina Davies

Ahhh ..... and it all falls apart like a cheap suit. Once he really gets into philosophy, he also appears not to be a philosopher. I like that he identifies himself as having been 'left brained'. I had begun to suspect that he became disillusioned with medicine and psychiatry and this whole project was his own personal search for meaning.

Jonas Berge

Thank you for this. When I started listening to DtG, you had already covered Jordan Peterson and some other figures, but there were some names left on my list based on popular figures in parts of my friend group. These were John Vervaeke, Gabor Maté, Ken Wilber, and Iain McGilchrist. So I’m very pleased that you have now decoded all of them, and unsuprisingly, your view on them is very similar to mine but more systematically developed of course. Thank you!

Frances goulart

When you hear that word” “mythos” , head for the hills! Sharp curves ahead!!!! Or as Chris commented elsewhere“ oh, yeah, a bunch of words”

John Pohl

Good podcast. Loved the discussion. Brief point. Process philosophy does not necessarily require God. Process theology does require God, but God does not have the big Omni-s. Chris, I apologize for setting your hair on fire. 😉😜

Dean

Chad Bigcock rears his ugly head again.

Dean

I wonder if Mcgilchrist would posit that seizures could, could, be caused by demons or, or possibly be due to epilepsy? I mean, it could be the lesions on the brain are what let the demons in?

Martin 🇧🇻

But isn't he just basically making the William Paley argument with the watchmaker? Biology is too complex - ergo there must be a higher power who made biological matter? Was waiting for him to reference the human eye or the woodpecker as examples.

Sam D.

I didn't think these 2 ops would be interesting (though I always listen anyway) but it was! Like so many eps it makes me travel back in time to memories of a much younger me falling vaguely sway to propositions like these, but then shaking it off like a dog shaking off water, and walking away.

Martin 🇧🇻

Aww, man! Is he suggesting that exorsisms work now? Come on...and the thought that the voices you hear are actually real isn't original at all. That you hear real/supernatural things, but everyone around you think you are just mad, is the plot of tons of horror, science fiction, comedy and other types of movies! It's the plot of the Exorcist!

Martin 🇧🇻

Somebody told me they were getting texts from a demon - and I have no reason to doubt it! So I guess it's true🤷🏼

Anne Stephens

Once upon a time he held clinical responsibilitiy for the treatment and welfare of patients. Yikes.

Linda Sears

Two big questions. First: why is this person taken so seriously since the foundation of his philosophy is based on faulty scientific understanding of the brain? Second: what sort of emotional support animal is Chris? I think he is a border collie that ends up driving his person crazy with his energy rather than providing a calming presence.

Arbo

Consciousness literally explains matter 🤩 (among other things). It may even be its main purpose ??

Arbo

Imho the consciousness in the teaspoon lies in the fact we consciously consider it a teaspoon. This also counts for matter in general. And consciousness. While of course in reality we have no idea what either of those things 'are' 'in reality'. Just what they mean to/for us. ??

Jake

Gilchrist's idea about a single global consciousness behind everything, and individuals being part of this, temporarily estranged, sounds the same as what Bernardo Kastrup says. I think it's just reheated old theological ideas, but they are desperate to dress it up to hide this, but also they do it in such a lazy way. One of the essential contradictions of one subset of modern gurus?

Ema

I feel its better he spends his time writing this nonsense than damaging patients. Also (as you kinda said) the stuff about rapid evolution under stress has been explained in materialist terms, and concretely at a molecular level, for decades. And written about for the general public ffs. It kept making me cringe though. Because he's picked up bits of discussion around that, and non-genetic inheritance, emergent properties, etc. But then he takes things to the most stupid possible conclusions. And when I looked hes been put on all these panels with people I think are fairly decent scientists. And its like why is he up there ffs? He doesnt know shit about this. And muddying the waters by sneaking creationism in everywhere. Just infuriating. I also just feel like being a smug upper class English bastard opens all sorts of doors that it really shouldnt.

James Smith

Thank you for this series. Someone on Alex O'Connor's sub was recommendeding McG as "one of the most important modern thinkers" and called you guys "propper arrogant idiots who have contributed nothing" 😂 Keep up the good work, and saving me a bunch of effort identifying the quacks!

Chris Clark

The wisest most insightful thing McGilchrist has said so far is “I don’t know how much to go into this”

Dial-1-2-enter-in-2-diaLOGOS

You’re killing me with the “left-brained” thing. It keeps reminding me of a boy I went to elementary school with. Whenever something came up that he didn’t agree with, he’d just label it as “gay.” So if you challenged him, he’d go straight to: “That’s a very gay way of thinking about it.” I feel like McGilchrist is doing something structurally similar—just with “left-brained” instead (or is it “right hemisphere”? I forget… I’m probably not even using these hemispheres right, haha). Same move, different vocabulary: disagreement gets flattened into a label that pretends to explain it. Anyway, great double episode. You may also have saved me from reading The Master and His Emissary, which was on my list. Appreciate it, guys.

Paul Ditta

Every time I listen to a decoding I find myself in a state of emotional and intellectual ambivalence. I become Schrödinger’s Ditta. Happy/Sad-Smart/Dumb-Clear/Confused The gurus are the Nutrimatic Drink dispenser of discourse, dispensing something that’s is almost, but not entirely, quite unlike sense. Another banger, boys. I’m going to have a lie down with a cool flannel on my head.

Kitchen Garage

Pure bloviation. I'm in awe of how little he says in what I assume was a four hour interview. I'm not particularly fond of Alex O Conner, but good lord, top marks for patience. This guys sounds like a very old first year philosophy student that didn't go to class and is half remembering things that he overheard at the University Pub.

Ion

Professor Matt prides himself in being this expert on panpsychism and then treats it as a branch of idealism rather than a distinct metaphysical stance, which it is. Dissapointing.

Elissa

But his accent is so posh… surely he must know what he’s talking about!

Melinda

27.45 in and no spoilers please, but I'll bet I'm about to find out that I'm doing "living in the world" all wrong.

PaulBFB

McGilchrist and O'Connor in that interview are basically definitive proof that podcasts were a huge mistake. In fact, let's turn off the internet. The sheer density of waffle from this bearded chipmunk doing his best over the top parody of a British professor makes me want to pull my hair out. The fact that the guy who calls himself "COSMIC SCEPTIC" just sits there and goes "yes yes, hmmm, oh very interesting" is just too much. Conversations like this could never happen in real life because after 2 minutes someone would grab either of them by the neck and shake them and insist they take a clear position or shut the hell up. And that's how it should be. Also, those two names together sound like an 80s buddy cop show about an Irish and a Scottish cop who gotta learn to work together - bootleg UK lethal weapon.

Philip Grant

"Materialistic reductionist explanations can't possibly account for human consciousness and experience. Also, if you disagree with me, that must be because of the neuroanatomy of your brain hemispheres."

Molly Bretthauer

I think one of Iain’s “that’s so left brain” moments should be clipped. Or the “not not” comment.

Roland Weber

Around minute 42, Matt completely messes up with the atom models. Small electrons and lots of empty space is exactly the obsolete billiard ball model. 😉

ketracel-white 🧁

I'm getting some strong Game A vs. Game B vibes from this whole thing

PhilipAHart

I'm reminded of this Kierkegaard line: "Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it.”

Amy S

So fascinating. I heard another guru-like person on a podcast yesterday using the same quantum physics analogy to prove a similar point!

Michael McEvoy

Matt and Chris thanks so much for taking the time to look at Iain M. I first read his work circa 2018 . It took me about 3 years to finally get all the way through TMandHE . Ever since then, I knew there was something about McGilchrist that really bothered me . Y’all have deconstructed his work so well. Thanks .

Melinda

It just all brings to mind some old Tim Michin songs.

Linda Sears

Did anyone else note that in the conversation with O’Connor he said the brain was complicated while machines are only complex (modular), but in the conversation with Pageau, he said that the brain is merely complex? That made my left brain hurt. If you are going to make a distinction between complexity and complicated and use a brain as the example of the second, then please be consistent.

Jackie Brown

This was a fantastic episode. I know why charlatans like McGilchrist do what they do. What I always wonder is, what draws so many people to such pseudo profundity?

Kung fu fan

Does anybody else read 'Ian McGilchrist' but think 'Ian McCaskill'?

Portimex

Excellent episode, very clear and precise. Thank you

Lys

I had a friend who is an academic and revered him and his book. She's not published outside her PhD, however always wanted to do research based on his work... in sport science/motor control 🫠 I got the book because of her but it was a battle to read. Looking at it all in an entirely different light now...

Anjan Sarkar

I know some of this is performative, but what a demonstration of megalomania.