Host

The Garrison Institute co-founder, urban visionary and award-winning author Jonathan F.P. Rose.

Guest

Dr. Dan Siegel is the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute and Founding Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where he also served as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he completed his postgraduate training at UCLA in pediatrics and psychiatry. An award-winning educator and bestselling author, Dan has written over fifteen books—including five New York Times bestsellers—translated into more than forty languages.

Transcript

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Show Notes

• [00:00] Introduction to the conversation — Jonathan Rose welcomes Dr. Dan Siegel to explore the evolving science of mind, blending neuroscience, physics, and ancient wisdom
• [03:40] Dan describes how his early family experiences led him to question the nature of attachment and the boundaries of the self
• [10:40] Dan recounts a formative experience falling off a horse in Mexico, which left him without a sense of his own identity
• [15:38] Dan’s frustration during his psychiatric training with Hippocrates’s definition of mind as “only the activity of the brain,” still prevalent in medical training today – an explanation of Dan’s concept of “Mwe” (me and we combined)
• [21:34] Dan’s alternative definition of mind: the mind as an emergent process that regulates the flow of energy and information — a framework that bridges psychology, physics, and contemplative science
• [25:15] Dan explores the Newtonian vs quantum aspects of mind and time and the importance of staying curious and open to interdisciplinary insights
• [32:42] Karen O’Brien on Quantum Social Change and her book, You Matter More than You Think, connecting physics, consciousness, and social transformation – Dan and Karen’s collaborative work on Quantum Social Fields, applying contemplative and neuroscience-informed practices to help climate activists address burnout and reconnect with purpose
• [36:40] The “plane of possibility” — a metaphor for the formless source of all form, where awareness itself arises and where creativity, compassion, and new possibilities become accessible
• [37:17] Jonathan ties quantum theory to everyday life: how dissolving the fixed sense of self allows entry into the realm of potential, enabling new forms of imagination and collective action
• [39:23] Dan expands: integration arises from this plane of possibility, linking differentiated parts into coherent wholes, generating both personal well-being and systemic resilience – Hope as an emergent property of awareness: when we access deeper layers of mind, we expand our sense of possibility and rediscover our capacity to act creatively and compassionately
• [42:00] Honoring Joanna Macy’s “Great Turning” — a shift in consciousness that invites us to see crisis as opportunity, reconnecting with ancestors, descendants, and all species through a wider “We”
• [46:00] Closing reflections: embracing the challenges of our time as dance partners, transforming fear into creativity, and finding strength in the shared dance of collective awakening.