Giants Shoulder

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Johanne Nedergaard is the cognitive scientist who, with Gary Lupyan, named anendophasia: the absence of an inner voice. An assistant professor at Aarhus University and a 2024 Aarhus University PhD prize winner, she ran the first experiments testing what changes when the voice in your head goes quiet. The answer was far less than anyone expected.

Expect to learn:
- The Missing Voice: why some people report no inner speech at all, and why nobody noticed
- The Rhyme Test: they struggled with word lists and rhymes, until they said the words out loud
- Mind Over Muscle: jam someone's inner voice and they push less hard on the bike
- Heart Talk: raising your heart rate while lying perfectly still, using only words
- The Control Question: why mental health tracks whether you can switch your inner voice off, not whether it's kind

SPONSORS
Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool) - https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Russell Hurlburt - No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and How Your Mind Lies to You: https://youtu.be/j0gKl-g3DNg

Adam Zeman - The Blind Mind’s Eye: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting Consciousness ! Dr Adam Zeman: https://youtu.be/SgA2up6-Bok

Alex Hutchinson - Alex Hutchinson: The Lie That Unlocked Human Limits, Tricking Perception & Aphantasia!: https://youtu.be/YqqU4ckq8s8

GUEST LINKS
Aarhus University Profile: https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/[email protected]
Personal Site: https://johannenedergaard.github.io
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johanneskned.bsky.social
Nedergaard & Lupyan (2024), Not Everybody Has an Inner Voice: https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241243004
Nedergaard et al. (2023), Mind Over Body: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102472
Wallentin et al. (2025), Heart Talk: https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70138

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/a81yY0k4x78
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:02 What Is Anendophasia?
0:04:19 The Viral Threads That Started It All
0:05:57 Four Experiments on People With No Inner Voice
0:07:12 Saying the Words Out Loud Closed the Gap
0:14:10 Can You Trust Your Own Introspection?
0:17:27 Detecting Inner Speech From the Outside
0:19:56 How Many People Have No Inner Voice?
0:20:54 Where Your Inner Voice Comes From
0:23:24 Is It Genetic?
0:26:06 Unconscious Inner Speech and the Aphantasia Parallel
0:30:58 Deaf People Sign to Themselves Silently
0:33:25 What Your Self-Talk Reveals About Your Sport
0:35:46 Jam Your Inner Voice and You Push Less Hard
0:43:45 Raising Your Heart Rate With Words Alone
0:47:12 Positive vs Negative Self-Talk in Sport
0:52:55 What Silent Minds Reveal About Thinking
0:56:13 Mental Health Is About Control, Not Content
1:02:23 Psychedelics and the Inner Voice
1:03:51 Can You Train an Inner Voice?
1:07:25 They Never Rehearse Conversations

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Donald Hoffman is the cognitive scientist whose own maths told him reality isn't what it seems. Around 1986, after seven years modelling perception, the equations said we render the world on the fly, and he has been recovering ever since. Now Professor Emeritus at UC Irvine, he has founded the Trace Institute to rebuild physics from conscious observers, starting outside spacetime. Its first collaboration, with Andrew Gallimore, asks whether DMT entities are glimpses beyond the headset.

Expect to learn:
- The Trace: the 121-year-old maths behind every observer window
- Zero For Trillions: why no theory of consciousness explains a single experience
- The Nose Test: why seeing your own nose shows how restricted your headset is
- The DMT Experiment: passing information through an entity under controlled conditions
- Mach 40: what UFOs might look like to someone with the headset's source code

SPONSORS
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Join the Outskill AI Mastery Sprint (Free This Weekend) - https://links.outskill.com/GIASHOULAUG2

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Andrew Gallimore - No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://youtu.be/USgWrxEFWDA

Michael Graziano - Is This Greatest Consciousness Theory You’ve Never Heard Of: https://youtu.be/ZnasmLpY5_8

David Luke - Meet the Professor of Paranormal Consciousness - DMT Entities, Telepathy Tapes & OBE's: https://youtu.be/qLKD1gt1X5o

Karl Friston - Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://youtu.be/R-IZOFs4qmY

GUEST LINKS
Trace Institute Profile: https://traceinstitute.org/people/donald-hoffman/
Trace Institute Website: https://www.traceinstitute.org/
Trace Institute YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TraceInstitute
X: https://x.com/donalddhoffman
UC Irvine: https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/
The Case Against Reality (2019): https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393254693
Trace × Andrew Gallimore (DMT research): https://traceinstitute.org/collaborations/gallimore/

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/dOAo04b6jCQ
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:45 The Biggest Unsolved Problem In Science
0:05:38 Physicists Say Spacetime Is Doomed
0:11:03 Dennett, Graziano And The Illusion Of Consciousness
0:14:35 What Is A Trace? Markov Chains Made Simple
0:22:23 The Discovery That Founded The Trace Institute
0:26:10 Recursive Trace Logic: How Observers Become Agents
0:31:27 The CCTV Metaphor For Reality
0:37:01 Why There's Always A Nose In Your Vision
0:41:08 How Big Is Reality Beyond The Interface?
0:43:10 What "Consciousness Is Fundamental" Actually Means
0:52:43 Consciousness Science Has Explained Zero Experiences
0:58:03 Does Your Consciousness Belong To You?
1:01:57 If Consciousness Is One, Why Isn't Telepathy Common?
1:08:16 "I Have No Neurons"
1:11:13 The Maths That Slapped Him In 1986
1:20:04 Andrew Gallimore And The DMT Entity Experiment
1:26:34 The Swami Who Showed Zero Powers
1:32:08 The DMT Mantis And Why Reports Are So Consistent
1:37:28 Are DMT Entities Real, Or Just Icons?
1:46:35 Nine Conjectures To Rebuild All Of Physics
1:49:29 UFOs At Mach 40
1:50:19 Neuroscience As Headset Engineering
1:57:13 Hacking The Source Code Of Reality
2:04:28 AI Is "Dumber Than Cucumbers"

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Michael Masters is the biological anthropologist who thinks the grey aliens might be us. A professor at Montana Technological University, he studies how the human skull, face and eyes evolved over six million years, and has excavated at a 3.5-million-year-old hominin site in South Africa. His extratempestrial hypothesis argues that the beings described in UFO encounters are our own descendants, travelling back in time to study their evolutionary past. He says it's falsifiable, just not in his lifetime.

Expect to learn:
- The Brazilian Farmer: the 1950s abduction that ended in sex with a near-human woman
- The Earlier Cases: the abduction reports that predate Betty and Barney Hill
- Brain Up, Face Back: why six million years of skull evolution point towards the greys
- The Gamete Problem: why our descendants might come back for our sperm and eggs
- Falsifiable By Time: why he'll be "long dead" before anyone knows if he's right

SPONSORS
Get Jenni Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off) - http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulder

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Andrew Gallimore - No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://youtu.be/USgWrxEFWDA

Rick Strassman - Meet The Father Of Modern DMT Research: https://youtu.be/KeAZOj7tYsc

GUEST LINKS
Montana Tech Faculty Profile: https://mtech.edu/arts-sciences/faculty/michael-masters/index.html
X: https://x.com/MorphoTime
Website: https://idflyobj.com/
Identified Flying Objects (2019): https://www.leighbureau.com/books/identified-flying-objects
The Extratempestrial Model (2022): https://www.leighbureau.com/books/the-extratempestrial-model
Lomas, Case & Masters (2024), The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/33/3

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/FRFT3PeiWwk
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:26 The Skull Scientist Who Studies UFOs
0:03:46 "They Could Be Us From The Future"
0:07:21 The Book On The Shelf That Started It All
0:09:10 Whitley Strieber And Communion
0:10:49 Abductees Who Never Told Their Own Families
0:17:13 The Archetypal Abduction Story
0:19:38 The Nimitz: 80,000ft In Under Two Seconds
0:20:37 The Farmer Who Had Sex With An Alien
0:22:22 "I Just Floated Right Through The Ceiling"
0:24:06 Did Sci-Fi Invent Alien Abductions?
0:29:15 DMT Entities, Machine Elves And UFOs
0:37:32 The 2017 Story That Broke UFOs Open
0:42:08 "The Disc-Shaped Craft Are The Time Machine"
0:44:39 Why The Greys Are Built Like Hominins
0:47:26 Can You Really Fast-Forward Evolution?
0:49:30 Brain Up, Face Back: 6 Million Years Of Skulls
0:56:04 Are We Just Projecting Human Faces?
1:00:13 How Far In The Future Are They From?
1:03:23 Why Would We Evolve To Look Like That?
1:06:51 Falling Sperm Counts And The Gamete Mystery
1:15:01 How Do You Falsify Time-Travelling Aliens?
1:22:27 Teaching A University Class On UFOs
1:30:13 Is The US Government Hiding Something Huge?
1:32:40 Keeping UFOs Quiet Through Grad School

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: [email protected]

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Janice Holden is a near-death-experience researcher who designed the first hospital experiment to catch consciousness outside the body, edits the Journal of Near-Death Studies and spent 31 years on the University of North Texas faculty. For nearly 40 years she has tested one claim: that patients whose hearts have stopped can see the room from above. Surgeons have corroborated some of those details. No controlled study has caught one yet.

Expect to learn:
- The Leg In The Yellow Bag: an anaesthetised patient described an amputation in the next operating room
- The Post-it Notes: a heart patient saw a detail only his surgeon would know
- The Hidden-Target Experiment: pictures hidden near hospital ceilings, visible only from above
- The Life Review: reliving every moment of your life as the people you affected
- DMT Vs Near-Death: why the brain may interpret reality rather than create it

SPONSORS
Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool) - https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Rick Strassman - Meet The Father Of Modern DMT Research: https://youtu.be/KeAZOj7tYsc

Anil Seth - No. 1 Consciousness Expert: Optical Illusions that Prove Reality is a Lie, Emotions, Books and AI!: https://youtu.be/lOSA06K0l1o

Karl Friston - Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://youtu.be/R-IZOFs4qmY

Marjorie Woollacott - Neuroscientist: "Your Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness" — NDEs, Telepathy and Terminal Lucidity: https://youtu.be/mDWtmfmIUHA

GUEST LINKS
Website: https://www.janholden.com
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0313358648
Journal of Near-Death Studies: https://www.janholden.com/jnds
IANDS: https://iands.org
Articles: https://www.janholden.com/copy-of-articles

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/RAXr5ZavLk4
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:15 From Doctoral Student To 40 Years Of Near-Death Research
0:03:38 How Resuscitation Created The Near-Death Experience
0:09:06 What Actually Happens During A Near-Death Experience
0:11:03 Moving At The Speed Of Thought
0:11:41 The Tunnel And The City Of Light
0:13:18 The Life Review: Feeling What Everyone Else Felt
0:14:55 "It's Not Your Time": Why People Come Back
0:19:27 Why Near-Death Experiences Aren't Just Dreams
0:21:09 The Woman Who Watched Her Own Surgery
0:27:11 The Post-it Notes A Dead Patient Saw
0:32:31 The Doctors Who Corroborated These Cases
0:33:39 The Harvard Neurosurgeon Who Changed His Mind
0:37:38 Why "False Memory" Doesn't Explain It
0:40:08 The Patient Who Floated Into The CPR Training Room
0:45:05 Hiding Pictures On Hospital Ceilings
0:49:35 Seven Studies, No Hits Yet
0:53:32 Is Humanity Ready For Proof?
0:58:08 DMT Vs Near-Death Experiences
1:06:35 Does The Brain Create Reality Or Interpret It?
1:10:27 Consciousness Before Birth And After Death
1:14:47 Why Don't We See This All The Time?
1:17:30 Karma And The Afterlife In Southeast Asia

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Carlos Sonnenschein is Professor of Integrative Physiology and Pathobiology at Tufts University School of Medicine. With Ana Soto, he developed the tissue organisation field theory of cancer: the idea that a tumour begins not in a rogue cell, but in the breakdown of the tissue around it. For fifty years he has argued that cancer research has been looking one level too low. Here he explains why the mutations we find in tumours may be the wreckage, not the cause.

Expect to learn:
- The default state: why every cell's natural tendency is to proliferate
- Growth factors: why he argued they don't exist, and why people laughed
- Mutations without cancer: why he says no gene has been shown to cause a cancer
- Targeted therapy: why he believes the target was never really there
- Cellular agency: how life, proliferation and motility fit together

SPONSORS
Get Jenni Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off) - http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulder

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Michael Levin - Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM

GUEST LINKS
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VmTCfroAAAAJ
IEA Nantes Fellow Profile: https://www.iea-nantes.fr/en/fellows/carlos-sonnenschein
Biological Purpose Project: https://www.biologicalpurpose.org/people/carlos-sonnenschein
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos-Sonnenschein
An Integrative Approach Toward Biology, Organisms, and Cancer (2018): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29119499

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/AypMhvhWwjg
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:26 From Paediatrics to Cancer Research
0:05:23 The Oestrogen Paradox
0:08:43 Proliferation Is the Default State of Every Cell
0:12:27 Inhibitors of Inhibitors
0:14:06 "Growth Factors Don't Exist"
0:15:31 The Somatic Mutation Theory
0:17:41 The Society of Cells and the Tissue Theory of Cancer
0:21:44 Stars and Dogs: Funding a Minority View
0:23:49 Teaching Cancer Through Genetics
0:25:01 How Does Tissue Keep Cells in Check?
0:26:04 Metastasis
0:28:34 Prostate Cancer and Spontaneous Regression
0:30:38 The Cost of Cancer Treatment
0:31:49 Melanoma, UV and the Standard Model
0:32:24 Mutations Without Cancer
0:35:17 No Gene Causes Cancer: BRCA1, p53 and RAS
0:37:00 Why Targeted Therapy Isn't Targeted
0:38:03 When Treatment Causes Cancer
0:40:39 What Does Genome Sequencing Tell You?
0:42:24 Why Does Cancer Run in Families?
0:45:41 Trauma, Healing and Tissue Robustness
0:47:59 A Theory of Organisms
0:50:59 What Is Life?
0:52:18 Economics Is a Branch of Biology
0:53:36 Cellular Agency
0:58:36 Defining Life: Proliferation and Motility
1:01:36 When Did Cells Become Agents?
1:04:49 The Future of Cancer Research
1:09:52 Final Thoughts

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: [email protected]