16. The Mind and Vision

Abhranil “Neel” Das is originally from India, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master’s in physics. He then received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, performing interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience and vision science. He is now continuing as a postdoc while working at UT's new Psychedelics Research and Therapy Center, conducting tests and analysis on how psychedelic treatment might improve mental health. Much of his efforts have focused on understanding how the visual part of our brain functions, how it makes sense of the images it sees, and how vision correlates to cognition. I was “patient zero” for his current experiments as part of a more extensive study, which is how we met. I found his work fascinating, specifically how measuring eye movement may help diagnose and track quantitative improvement for conditions like depression. During our conversation, we discussed his studies, EMDR, psychedelics in general, the sense of self, and other topics. Neel has his own podcast, The Room of Lives, which focuses on science, spirituality, the mind, and mystery, where this episode first appeared. Consequently, the initial eighteen minutes were mainly him interviewing me. I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did. DISCLAIMER: RARE SENSE® content is not medical advice. Nor does it represent the official position or opinions of any other organization or person. If you require diagnosis or treatment for a mental or physical issue or illness, please seek it from a licensed professional. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.raresense.com