Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Psychologist who studied the paranormal for over 20 years before abandoning it to research human consciousness and how beliefs are passed on.
On the island
Eight records
Carmina Burana: Veni, veni, venias
It's something that I've sung recently. One of my very few hobbies is I sing in the university choir, and it's a very exciting piece of music to sing, and I would like to sing along with the difficult bits while I'm on my own on the island.
Not Fade AwayFavourite
Oh well, this takes me back to those days in Oxford. I spent a lot of time listening to Grateful Dead in those days, and it's one of my favourites, not Fade Away.
Barbara Hendricks, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
The next record reminds me of one of the few nice things at school. That's where I learnt to sing, which I enjoyed.
This is Edie Brickell, not a very well-known record, but something that just takes me back to a certain period of my life, and I would like to be reminded of it.
Oh, this is an old favourite of mine. It's something which I used to listen to often when skiing, with the Walkman on, and get the rhythm and go on the bumps, and you know and that's what it would take me back to from my desert island.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
One of the things I'll miss terribly on my Desert Island is Radio 4. I love to have voices, so I want something that's spoken rather than sung. And I also want something to make me laugh. So I've chosen The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is a wonderful radio series.
The Musical Offering, BWV 1079: Ricercar a 6
I thought going to this desert island I don't know that much about music technically, and I thought it would be a nice idea to take some music which I don't know at all, but which might educate me about music.
My last record is because of my children. They are teenagers and always have music on, and so to remind me of them I've chosen the Verve Bittersweet Symphony.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Is that an awful truth [that we are just biological organisms], in the sense that it inspires awe, or is it that you just didn't want to know that?
Well, both. Yes, it does inspire awe. I mean I think if you think I just got here for no reason at all, I'm just this lump of flesh that sort of evolved, I'm here because of the genes of my past and the ideas that I've picked up in my lifetime, and that's it, that is awe inspiring. To me it's more awe-inspiring than what some people would prefer, the idea that God put me here or there's a heaven or something.
Presenter asks
2:12How emotional did you feel [when you decided to abandon your studies into the paranormal]?
No, the trauma came much earlier. Deciding to stop recently has really been just I've had enough now. But the trauma, the emotions came in having to change my mind. Because when I started after having some dramatic experiences and training in the Kabbalah and all sorts of things, I was absolutely convinced about telepathy and ghosts and life after death and the existence of souls and spirits and what have you. And I wanted to prove all these things. And when I began to do research that didn't show them, that's when it was difficult.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Darwin
I have never read all of The Origin of Species, so I would take that and read it very slowly from cover to cover.
The luxury
I would like to take a handful of cannabis seeds, and then I can also enjoy my favourite hobby, which is gardening.
What was it that inspired you in the first place? What gave you that rush of optimism that there might be something out there?
The experience happened in my first term at Oxford when I was studying physiology and psychology... I seemed to be going down this tunnel in the music, and there was a bright light at the end of this dark tunnel... Suddenly, I came out in this light and everything came clear, and it was as though I was on the ceiling looking down, and it could see my own body and my two friends. And it was a classic out-of-body experience.
Presenter asks
3:55Why didn't you put the whole experience just down to drugs? Why did you think there must be something in it?
For the same reason that people always treat these experiences as different from other things, because it was so realistic... intellectually, to be honest, I had to say this is the most extraordinary thing that's ever happened to me. I know that this was realer than real, that something was going on that seemed at the time to be more important than ordinary life. And I need to understand it.
Presenter asks
10:02Why did you hate school so much? Why was it such hell?
I hated school. It was a boarding school. It was very strict. I'm not a very sociable person... to be forced to be with other girls all the time, to have no privacy, no way of escaping, to be laughed at for being clever, to be and I was fat and I was called short, fat, hairy legs and you know um I mean, I just had a horrible time.
Presenter asks
28:23How difficult has that been to bear [attracting wrath from deeply religious people and believers in the paranormal]?
At times it has been hard. Mostly it isn't. Mostly I enjoy the battle. I enjoy the fact that I don't know whether I'm right. And having a good argument with somebody, hearing their point of view, putting mine, will help me to work out, you know, who is right. But sometimes I just can't stand it anymore.
“I think one of the things we have to do as scientists is if we genuinely think science is telling us something about human nature, then we have to live our lives really believing that.”
“why is an experience that can transform your life, that can make you feel different about yourself, that can make you less afraid of death, why should that be less valuable because it happens in the brain than if it happens in some mythical other world?”
“Looking from experience, from meditation and so on, you ask the question, Who am I? Where am I? You look and look and you don't find it. So that both the scientific way and the meditation way lead to this awful ah conclusion. That really there's nobody in there.”