Michael Ferguson 🕊🧠
@neuromichael
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Neurospirituality Lab Director @Brain_Circuits | Instructor in Neurology @HarvardMed | Director @Harvard College First-Year Wellness
Boston, MA
Joined June 2016
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(1/12) Our brain network study of religious fundamentalism is out in PNAS. We identified brain networks associated with religious fundamentalism and found shared neuroanatomy with lesions linked to confabulation and criminal behavior:
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Previously unseen details of human brain structure revealed. Featured image: a single neuron with ~5,600 of the nerve fibers that connect to it.
I feel overwhelming awe at nature's complexity and order.
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(1/11) 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭: 𝘈 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴
🧠🧵⤵️
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New commentary in Nature: Neuroscientists must not be afraid to study religion. Hear, hear! 🙏🧠
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@SuperDelecto
@bendiken
it seems there's at least enough order that your neurons' networks perceived patterns, inferred intended meaning, and designed a calculated response. 🤷♂️🧠🙃
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(1/12) New article! I'm very pleased to share our most recent report: A neural circuit for spirituality and religiosity derived from patients with brain lesions. Here is my Twitter summary of our findings...
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Very pleased to share our new paper identifying a brain circuit for human memory. Many thanks to mentor
@foxmdphd
& our wonderful collaborators!
#brain
#mind
#memory
#science
#neuroscience
#neurology
#cognition
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Day 1 in the new home of the Neurospirituality Lab! I can hardly wait to start hosting collaborators and building a bigger research team. I’ll save you a seat!
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Our article on a neural circuit for
#spirituality
and
#religiosity
is the current cover story for Biological Psychiatry (
@BiologicalPsyc1
)!
Twitter summary of our findings in RT that follows ⤵️
#brain
#mind
#science
#medicine
#psychiatry
#neurology
(1/12) New article! I'm very pleased to share our most recent report: A neural circuit for spirituality and religiosity derived from patients with brain lesions. Here is my Twitter summary of our findings...
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10 years ago today, my husband and I accidentally became the first same-sex couple legally married in the state of Utah. It still gives me butterflies to read the original
@sltrib
report about that momentous day:
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Giving a talk that touches on trauma research...in the building where gay-to-straight electroshock experiments were conducted...on the campus where I myself was introduced to conversion therapy. Sometimes there are poetic spandrels in the trajectory of the universe.
#empowerment
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8 years ago today, Seth and I became the first same-sex couple legally married in Utah (and thus the first same-sex couple in the United States to be married in a red state). It's been a wild adventure with my best friend, one I could have never imagined.
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My husband is about to defend his dissertation on the history of conversion therapy. (!!!) I am so proud of him.
#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicLife
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Fantastic talk today at Harvard by
@BishopBarron
. I would have loved to dive deeply with him on neurospirituality and the Christian contemplative tradition. Someday, perhaps! 😅🧠🕊
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My husband and I recently participated in an fMRI study together. We've been a bonded pair for over 12 years now. It's an experience of reverence and gratitude to gaze at the organs that have been central in supporting our shared memories and affections.
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I'm excited to announce my cross appointment to the teaching faculty at Harvard Divinity School as a Lecturer on Neurospirituality. "Neurospirituality" will launch this fall as a semester course!
#brain
#mind
#neuroscience
#spirituality
#neurospirituality
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Generous personal profile on me in
@thecrimson
. 🙏 Gay, Catholic, Mormon choir-directing neuroscientist studying spirituality? Let's go! 🧠🙌🤯
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Delighted to share that I've received an official appointment as a Fellow with the Center for the Study of World Religions. I'm very excited to build new and stronger bridges between Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School.
#religion
#spirituality
#science
#medicine
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*So* much fun teaching lesion network mapping to theologians and philosophers today at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. V grateful for amazing Benedictine hospitality. Our
#neurospirituality
research was very well received!
#mind
#brain
#spirituality
#religion
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Here are a few more images from the NIH Director's Blog showcasing new 3D reconstructions of human brain tissue. These are our most detailed depictions of the human brain to date.
We each host a marvelous cosmos within. 🧠✨
Previously unseen details of human brain structure revealed. Featured image: a single neuron with ~5,600 of the nerve fibers that connect to it.
I feel overwhelming awe at nature's complexity and order.
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Imagine believing that each brain region can only belong to one network.
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🎵 I don't want a lot for Christmas... 🎵🧠🧲🙏🎄😅
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Finally got to see a hard copy of our neurospirituality cover story in Biological Psychiatry--thanks,
@jaredniels
! So excited to be working on the sequel of this report. Stay tuned! 😍🧠🔥
#brain
#mind
#spirituality
#science
#medicine
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I had a really special honor to give an invited lecture to the cloistered Carmelite nuns in Seoul. They were very interested in learning how scientists are studying spirituality, and showed clear interest in helping enrich the discourse between spiritual and scientific paradigms.
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#Hummingbird
encounter. They're truly charming creatures.
#bird
#birds
#hummingbirds
#tiny
#animal
#creature
#nature
#beauty
#life
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Today was the inaugural meeting of the Neurospirituality Lab! 😍
6 talented researchers from neurology, psychiatry, developmental psych, & divinity participated in vibrant, energetic discussion of projects, visions, & goals. A terrific kick off! Much more coming soon!! 🤩✨🧠✨
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My heart is full that I get to work with good and brilliant people.
If you ever have a chance, even a slight chance, to work at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics (
@Brain_Circuits
), I warmly urge you to take it. Happy to discuss it with anyone.
@foxmdphd
@andreashorn_
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The signatures are on paper which means that it is official: Dr. J. Seth Anderson, PhD! 🤩🥳🧑🏼🎓🌟
Keep an eye out for his forthcoming book, "Straight Talk: The Genesis of Gay Conversion Therapy".
#History
#Academia
#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicChatter
My husband is about to defend his dissertation on the history of conversion therapy. (!!!) I am so proud of him.
#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicLife
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I'm pleased to be a discussant this semester with
@ExistWell
about his new book, "The Varieties of Spiritual Experience"!
The event will be hosted by
#Harvard
Divinity School and open to the public by Zoom. Details forthcoming!
#spirituality
#science
#neuroscience
#psychology
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So happy to extend a wellkommen today to
@andreashorn_
and
@c_neudorfer
. We're thrilled to have them join the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics team at
@BrighamWomens
.
#medicine
#science
#neuroscience
#neurology
#hms
#bwh
#mgb
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So many congratulations to "Captain"
@foxmdphd
, recipient of the new Raymond D. Adams, MD Distinguished Chair in Neurology!!
It's an honor and a pleasure to be part of this amazing "crew" at
@Brain_Circuits
and
@BWHNeurology
.
#science
#medicine
#neurology
@harvardmed
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The great Oxford debate between
@ExistWell
and me on psychedelics and spirituality was a hit--standing room only! Great audience questions. Solid points made and won by both debaters. The overall winner: friendship. 😄
#science
#philosophy
#psychedelics
#academictwitter
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Strong work led by Isaiah Kletenik on network localization of unconscious visual perception in blindsight:
#brain
#mind
#science
#neuroscience
#medicine
#neurology
#consciousness
#vision
#perception
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Tonight's Neuroscience of Meditation class covered psychedelics and altered states. It was wild ("trippy", if you will) to teach Harvard undergrads about psychedelic science in the same building where Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) explored these themes.
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Come by poster 2240 this afternoon to chat and all-things-lesion. I promise I'll work on my Kpop heart.
#OHBM2024
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The lab spaces at
@ChampalimaudF
are the most beautiful I have ever seen. 👏👏👏
What other institutions have especially beautiful research spaces?
Imagine doing science in the Garden of Eden and you will be pretty close to the reality of being at
@ChampalimaudF
. Many thanks for wonderful meetings and discussions. Obrigado e cumprimentos!
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Good news! I was awarded an
@HMSOsherCenter
pilot research grant to examine relationships between loneliness and compassion. I'm excited to dive into the science of these major factors for clinical risk and resiliency.
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Our pet rat full on smiling after a taste of wine. 💞🐭🍇
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I was happy to weigh in with some reflections from neurospirituality for an article in Rolling Stone:
“(T)here is this recurring motif that there is a great unity to life, and that we are all co-participants in that great unity, and that when we connect
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It's so good...
@evantthompson
thank you for this gem of a book.
#mind
#brain
#life
#biology
#science
#neuroscience
#philosophy
#spirituality
#neurospirituality
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Breaking news: the Pope allows blessing of same-sex couples.
My husband and I celebrate our 10-year anniversary in two days. I know what we're going to be doing to commemorate it.
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Delighted and enthused to deliver a plenary talk on
#Neurospirituality
at
#SOBP2023
!
#brain
#mind
#medicine
#psychiatry
#science
#neuroscience
#spirituality
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I love when the hummingbirds perch on my fingers. This is one of my favorite parts of summer.
#birds
#hummingbirds
#nature
#beauty
#wildlife
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Really liking the reMarkable 2 as a paperless option for PDF management and engagement.
#LevelUp
#AcademicTwitter
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Korean Buddhist temple in Seoul. God, I love human spirituality.
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Season 2 of The Luminous Brain Podcast kicks off with Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, who joins me to discuss a hotly controversial question: can
#spirituality
be scientific? Tune in & let's illuminate our worlds!
#luminousbrain
#brain
#mind
#science
#neuroscience
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Sweet--found out I received a Distinction in Teaching award from Harvard's Office of Undergraduate Education. I'll take it!
Grateful for my former students & excited for connections with future students that are yet to be made!
#academictwitter
#academicchatter
#teaching
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Avicenna's Canon of Medicine, Book 3, Treatise 1: "ipsius alteratio cum imaginationibus"; it (the physical brain) is changed with imaginative activity.
Might Avicenna have been anticipating neuroplasticity?
#brain
#mind
#medicine
#philosophy
#science
#neuroscience
#history
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This gorgeous bush literally stopped me in my tracks while walking across campus. Why is nature so beautiful?
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Brilliant work to identify symptom-specific networks in Parkinson's disease, then to subsequently personalize deep brain stimulation targets based on a patient's symptom profile. 👏👏👏
Warm congrats
@NaN_Value
,
@b_hollunder
,
@neumann_wj
,
@van_mila
,
@foxmdphd
,
@andreashorn_
&
Modulating networks using DBS is an effective treatment for PD – but which circuits map to improvements in individual symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and axial? A 🧵 about our new paper out now in
@NatureComms
@netstim_org
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I finished my first triathlon today!
Husband was going to race, too, but broke both his arms last week. 😲😭 He nonetheless powered through and walked a 5k. Nothing can keep him down!
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I'm very grateful to have been the closing keynote speaker at Boston College's theology conference this weekend. I'm passionate about unifying spiritual & material accounts of the human person. 🙏🧠
#science
#neuroscience
#spirituality
#neurospirituality
#neurotheology
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One day I will be a jaded senior professor who does not cry on the last day of class for the semester.
Today is not that day.
So, so grateful for such wonderful students and for the opportunity to be part of their university experience.
#academictwitter
#academicchatter
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I'm excited to speak at the Mass General
#Psychedelics
Conference this November. Brain circuits for mystical-type experience, here we go! 🧠🔥
Excited for the 3rd Mass General
#Psychedelics
Conference, Nov 3-4 in Boston! Great lineup:
This will be a nuanced and well-rounded course on the state of psychedelics and psychedelic research in medicine.
Please RT or share with anyone interested!
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Inspiring work by
@saratheriver
to understand temporal lobe epilepsy. 🧠
(Incidentally, TLE has longstanding associations with hyperreligiosity. Lots of curiosity there for me.)
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Alright,
#Massachusetts
, you need to vote
#YesOn3
this November to defend dignity & respect of
#transgender
people in our state. This should be a non-negotiable issue & should NOT be a ballot vote in the first place.
#rights
#civilrights
#trans
#LGBT
#LGBTQ
#MA
#boston
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Today from an undisclosed coffee shop in London, I am plotting how to destroy
@ExistWell
in our debate this week at Oxford University. 😉
#academicchatter
#academictrashtalk
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.
@andreashorn_
and
@shansiddiqi
crushing it at Neuroscience Day at
@BrighamWomens
. Amazing work coming out of
@Brain_Circuits
!
#brain
#mind
#science
#medicine
#neurology
#psychiatry
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First day of class for this semester's Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation course! My students are THE coolest! We are going to have a fantastic semester learning together. 🧠🤩💞
#brain
#mind
#science
#neuroscience
#meditation
#cognition
#spirituality
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I'm lecturing today in my
#Neurospirituality
course on clinical neurospirituality & pleased that I can feature colleagues' excellent brain circuit therapeutics work in our class discussion.
@shansiddiqi
@foxmdphd
@andreashorn_
#brain
#medicine
#neurology
#psychiatry
#spirituality
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Boston in fall.
Ward's Pond is one of my favorite spots for leaf peeping. 🍁🍂
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🧐Provocative new meta-analysis on neural conjunctions of social cognition, DMN, ToM, and psychedelics:
FWIW, BA40--significant in the union of social cog, ToM, and psychedelics--is quickly becoming my favorite patch of cortex. 🤓🧠
Note that contrast
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Grateful to
@JaySanguinetti
for an introduction to transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS). 🙏🧠
#brain
#mind
#science
#neuroscience
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Loving the 3D printer a colleague brought into the lab
@Brain_Circuits
.
#brain
#science
#art
#design
#technology
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Today was a growth milestone for the
#Neurospirituality
Lab: it was our first meeting at which we had more in-person than online participants! Cheers to materializing the vision of neurospirituality. 🧠🕊️
(Also, if you don't know what a spiritual experience feels like, I
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Publicizing compassion science to Harvard undergrads is bringing back the spirit of my missionary days and I am here for it.
Cheers to planting seeds of compassion in the next generation of leaders.
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So proud of my husband who has a fellowship in history at the University of Cambridge this semester. (Apparently
@kathbum
and the McPlant are all the rage there right now.)
#UK
#Cambridge
#academictwitter
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I am excited to deliver an invited talk tomorrow at
@ChamaplimaudF
and share breaking results. Lisboa, és muito bonita.
Title:
Neurospirituality: Developing Evidence-Based Spiritual Therapeutics
Abstract:
People routinely report spirituality as their most meaningful aspect of
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Morning walk in New Haven. Yale has beautiful architecture!
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Based on the best data available, prayer is the
#1
trigger for spiritual experiences. To me, this motivates and justifies attending with more scientific rigor to this extraordinarily widespread human behavior.
#neurospirituality
#brain
#mind
#science
#prayer
h/t
@ExistWell
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It delights me that the moon's dimensions and its proximity to Earth align precisely with our visual scale of the sun. This extraordinary coincidence didn't have to be so.
Niche but meaningful to me... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This year's celebration of the annunciation occurs on a day when there's alignment of earth, moon, and sun (i.e., a solar eclipse). Broadly, I think astonishing things happen when there's an alignment of self 🌎, will 🌕, and good ☀️.
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Sleep, memory, & DBS!
"Our results indicate that hippocampo–thalamocortical synchronization during sleep causally supports human memory consolidation."
Suggests "future development of closed-loop clinical DBS devices for memory disorders and dementia."
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A
#hummingbird
#brain
is >4% of its body weight--the largest % of any bird. (Our brains are 2% of our body weight.) Their
#spatial
&
#object
#memory
are outstanding: they return to the same tree after migrating hundreds of miles, & recognize individual humans. I love them.
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You may be resting; but your brain never stops!
#rest
#restingstate
#restingbrain
#fMRI
#rsfMRI
#neuro
#neuroscience
#brain
#brainappreciation
#brainlove
#anima
#animation
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I am thrilled to speak about
#neurospirituality
at this week's Esalen Institute conference on "The Psychedelic Turn". The natural beauty of the setting is off the charts.
#science
#philosophy
#mind
#spirituality
#psychedelics
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Thrilled to announce the NEW Brain Circuit Therapeutics Training Program!
Inaugural speaker: Konrad Kording
@KordingLab
Topic: "Use and misuse of causality in neuroscience"
When: Thurs 9/9/2021 @ 5PM (ET)
Access link:
Open to all!
@shansiddiqi
@foxmdphd
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This may be my favorite conference moniker yet. Yes, I am "somebody". 😅
Co-presenting today with my husband on historical and contemporary intersections of Mormonism and psychedelics. Interested to support this work? DM me. ✉️🧠
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Excited to be a keynote speaker for the Lumen Christi Institute conference at the University of Chicago. It's high time for the science-religion discourse to move beyond mere compatibilism and explore opportunities for synergy. All for peace and the greater good.
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Having a "the future is now" moment with
@HelenFriedrich_
's phenomenal 3D high resolution brain atlas. Truly amazing work!!
@Brain_Circuits
@BWHNeurology
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We make quite the paradox. (Say it slowly and think about it.)
Congratulations, Dr. Anderson!
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I give a talk later this month on psychedelics and religion. Thank you, Amsterdam, for providing a great image to go on the opening slide.
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The brilliant (& Twitterless) Joe Taylor of
@Brain_Circuits
is leading groundbreaking work on anorexia nervosa. It's a condition in great need of more medical research & treatment development.
#SOBP2023
#psychiatry
#medicine
w/
@fredschaper3
@sbfrandsen1
@shansiddiqi
@foxmdphd
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Video of the Oxford Psychedelics & Spirituality debate between
@ExistWell
& me is now live:
#psychedelic
#psychedelics
#spirituality
#science
#medicine
#psychology
#neuroscience
#philosophy
#neurophilosophy
#neurospirituality
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Terrific discussion tonight on
#telos
&
#neurobiology
in the
#Boston
#Neurophilosophy
Group! We pitted
@danieldennett
&
#Aristotle
as intellective avatars to motivate the conversation. Cheers to nous poietikos & its conjunction!
#logos
#nous
#psyche
#brain
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