Consciousness, Parapsychology & the Science of Reality | ANEW Ep 107

In this episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar sits down with Dr. Howard Eisenberg—physician, psychologist, and consciousness researcher—to explore the mysteries of the mind, parapsychology, and what it really means to perceive reality. With over 50 years of groundbreaking work in medicine, psychology, and parapsychology, Dr. Eisenberg brings a rare perspective that blends science, spirituality, and lived experience.

From teenage experiments in telepathy to his pioneering books Inner Spaces and Dream It to Do It, Dr. Eisenberg shares how his journey led him to question whether the brain creates consciousness—or if consciousness itself is the foundation of everything.

Episode Highlights

• Dr. Eisenberg’s early curiosity and why he pursued medicine, psychology, and parapsychology
• How parapsychology research connects with quantum physics and spirituality
• The “primacy of consciousness” vs. the materialist worldview
• Why science resists exploring consciousness as a serious field
• The role of ego, filters, and technology in shaping perception
• Meditation, lucid dreaming, and non-attachment as gateways to higher awareness
• Dr. Eisenberg’s transformative realization that reality itself may be an illusion
  
  

⏱️ Episode Notes / Timestamps
 00:00 – Introduction with Dr. Supatra Tovar
 01:00 – Dr. Eisenberg’s career path: medicine, psychology & parapsychology
 05:00 – Revisiting 50 years of consciousness research
 07:00 – A life-changing realization about the nature of reality
 10:00 – Why consciousness is controversial in science
 14:00 – Ego, division, and the psychology of separation
 18:00 – Early ESP experiments & telepathy tests
 21:00 – Meditation, lucid dreaming, and transcending the self

📚 Resources & Links
 📖 Read Dr. Howard Eisenberg’s Dream It to Do It
 📘 Explore his classic work Inner Spaces
 🌐 Learn more about ANEW Insight: anew-insight.com
 📖 Read my book Deprogram Diet Culture
 🎓 Join the Deprogram Diet Culture Course for lasting transformation
 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube

If you’re curious about the nature of consciousness and want to explore science at the edges of reality, subscribe to the ANEW Insight Podcast on your favorite platform.

#higherconsciousness #intuitionandempathy #spiritualawakeningscience #energypsychology #therapeutictouch 

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:01

Dr. Eisenberg is the CEO of Syntrek, Inc, an international consultancy specializing in stress management, creative thinking, and executive coaching for Fortune 100 companies. His pioneering work in parapsychology includes authoring the seminal book Inner Spaces, parapsychological Explorations of the Mind, which became a textbook for his groundbreaking credit course in parapsychology at the University of Toronto. And so, you know, we always start out on this podcast with a little bit of inspiration. I want to know about your journey. How did you decide what made you decide to go into medicine and psychology and then eventually to branch out into parapsychology.

Dr. Howard Eisenberg: 0:03

So that was just coming again from curiosity, like what a wonderful way to really know how we're built, how we function why sometimes we're not healthy, and what we can do to regain our health, restore our health. The other side of that was a relative mission, to use the word loosely, of helping others and by helping others by educating them. The turning point for me though, in terms of where I am now, came about just a few years ago. I went on, as you partly have shared, in that wonderful introduction, doing many other things. So I had my medical practice, I had an academic career. I was heading up my company, Syntrek and working in different countries with all types of industries and different sectors. This was a pretty busy life and I had left behind for the time deep interest I first had in through of curiosity in parapsychology researching on our extended capacities of our mind, called properly just ESP, but that's not really a, you know, proper term. It's of the proper consciousness still. But again, a few years ago I was invited because of my history, because of that first book, inner Spaces, Parapsychological, Explorations of the Mind almost half a century ago, somebody who was involved with an organization of healers who do what's called sometimes Therapeutic Touch or biblically, was referred to as Laying on of Hands. The turning point for me though, in terms of where I am now, came about just a few years ago. I went on, as you partly have shared, in that wonderful introduction, doing many other things. So I had my medical practice, I had an academic career. I was heading up my company, Syntrek and working in different countries with all types of industries and different sectors. This was a pretty busy life and I had left behind for the time deep interest I first had in through of curiosity in parapsychology researching on our extended capacities of our mind, called properly just ESP, but that's not really a, you know, proper term. It's of the proper consciousness still. But again, a few years ago I was invited because of my history, because of that first book, inner Spaces, Parapsychological, Explorations of the Mind almost half a century ago, somebody who was involved with an organization of healers who do what's called sometimes Therapeutic Touch or biblically, was referred to as Laying on of Hands. There's different terms or energy medicine, energy psychology, and it was for their annual conference. It would be a keynote presentation. And to do a justice to honor the invitation, I did a very deep dive into almost half a century of the cumulative research in parapsychology since I was very hotly involved in it with my book and teaching at the university, as well as looking at the latest developments in modern physics, usually to as quantum mechanics, as well as comparative studies of how different religions understand and vision the world and give us guidance to live the good and healthy life in this world. And even going back before that to the indigenous teachings, before they even formalize as we call the major religions. And then some of the leading research now, the gates have opened for psychedelic research, what we were finding about brain functioning in control of laboratory studies of psychedelics. The research too that was coming out, which was totally evidence-based or neuroplasticity, how our thoughts can rewire our brain. So it's not that brain produces consciousness. Consciousness goes through the brain. It can modulate the brain itself physically. So as I'm going through this like really deep data dump and it's deep even, I'm only saying a few words, but phenomenal when you think about it. Half century in all these different fields deeply. Um, and then one day Supatra as I was still formulating my ideas for the upcoming presentation, several weeks to come. I had an experience in just a minute or two of time. I wasn't timing it. Totally unexpected. And this was an experience, not simply an understanding or a realization, some might even call it a revelation. I suddenly did a total 100 degree flip on my understanding and perception of reality. Again, unexpected. here I was doing research on leading edges of consciousness and reality in terms of quantum mechanics and so on, but not expecting this flip I was still assuming that the scientific Western understanding of reality being something somewhat fixed out there that has some predictability and some controllability, that was the reality. I wasn't totally convinced that the brain was the source, again, of consciousness going back to my early interest in parapsychology, but I knew it had a relationship to consciousness. But I still was accepting fundamentally, if you like, that we're in a world of separate beings, separate entities, separate things, objects, so broadly, I was still in that framework and still approaching it scientifically, but with this experience, I suddenly realized all of that as is described in some of the, you know, the old yoga techs is Maya. It's all an illiusion. So that was accompanied, this is all very fast. A minute or two if that, with a Not. It's a level of reality. So given in this realization though of this flippant again, of is internal. We call this the primacy of consciousness opposed to materialism or physicalism as sometimes referred to suddenly also meant emotionally, if I could say it this way, it was horrific loneliness. It sounded like the only person left, and there's not even a world like, you know, and like infinite boredom and loneliness. Then it flipped, fortunately. Morphed very quickly, again, the opposite. No, I'm connected to everyone and everything. So that's the long answer, little

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:10

Why is it so controversial? Why is it such a taboo topic, especially in the sciences, medicine, even psychology tends to look at it with suspicion. Even though we are finding so much coming from studies in quantum physics that support. The nature and the idea of, you know, universal consciousness. Why is it so controversial?

Dr. Howard Eisenberg: 0:11

How we see, interpret and feel and react to things. Secondly, we also have conditioned, prejudices basically which are running rampant right now with all the divisiveness we're seeing in so many different ways. So you have this investment again and established in a sense, to preserve the way things are. Just like, if you remember a few decades ago, the cigarette lobby. It, it was in their business interest. To promote cigarettes. Okay. And then, you know, there's scare mongers trying to tell people it cause cancer and so on. So we're here, like I call it as amphibious beings. We can live it to levels two dimensions, so we can We also developed ego. Ego enhances our sense of separation, both in terms of fear of others and competitiveness others. And the ego is like a psychological cancer, potentially. It's only healthy when it's somewhat, how should I say, constrained, restrained, or balanced. But it's not so hard for, it become unhealthy just as with, you know, physical things in our bodies, So as we get more into the ego egoistic state, which I call ego egoistic consciousness, we're more and more distracted by the divisiveness, fearing it so we're more like separate and lonely and feeling vulnerable or wanting to conquer and acquire big time. And you see this playing out in the world right now And not even working with their own intuition or empathy, or creativity. More and more just trying to keep up, you know, fomo, fear of missing out

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:17

peaked my interest. You said when you first started to become interested in consciousness, you started to do experiments on yourself, and so I want to know what those experiments were.

Dr. Howard Eisenberg: 0:18

I chose someone in front reading a book or a newspaper, so they're like more distracted. still worked. would choose people who were sitting together and talking to each other, so again, more distracted. It still worked. this is obviously not a laboratory type of experiment. We now know that as a scopesthesia, it's actually now recognized as one of the forms of psychic phenomena, but that's how it started. And then there were another you know, almost game that was played to me. I was a camp counselor as a teenager, the other counselors knew of my interest in this area, this weird area, and they decided to play a little trick on me. So they were having a bit of a, after, everything was settled down and the campers were in bed and everything, just a gathering for the counselors themselves and sort of a mini party, not nothing extravagant. And before I came in, they had decided amongst themselves, a group of them they were gonna suggest because of my interest doing an ESP test as it used to be called. they would pick an before I came in a different room of the building that they were in at the time, and they would ask me sort of guess what was on their mind or telepathically read their mind, so to speak. They had three objects in mind. I didn't ask for this. This is, I walked into it. I chose someone in front reading a book or a newspaper, so they're like more distracted. still worked. would choose people who were sitting together and talking to each other, so again, more distracted. It still worked. this is obviously not a laboratory type of experiment. We now know that as a scopesthesia, it's actually now recognized as one of the forms of psychic phenomena, but that's how it started. And then there were another you know, almost game that was played to me. I was a camp counselor as a teenager, the other counselors knew of my interest in this area, this weird area, and they decided to play a little trick on me. So they were having a bit of a, after, everything was settled down and the campers were in bed and everything, just a gathering for the counselors themselves and sort of a mini party, not nothing extravagant. And before I came in, they had decided amongst themselves, a group of them they were gonna suggest because of my interest doing an ESP test as it used to be called. they would pick an before I came in a different room of the building that they were in at the time, and they would ask me sort of guess what was on their mind or telepathically read their mind, so to speak. They had three objects in mind. I didn't ask for this. This is, I walked into it. Contact someone the front again of a vehicle or guess maybe what was in someone's mind, not to say knowing how, just imagining that possibility and then the intention,

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:21

You had also said, and I'm really curious about this. Like we're salamanders in a way.

Dr. Howard Eisenberg: 0:22

You're not attached to anything, not your ego, not your body. Not some emotion, not some sensation, not what's going on around you, not expectations of others. For whatever reason, you're where you are at the time. You let go of all of that.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:23

right. Yeah I just kind of imagine myself just kind of floating out of myself and kind of leaving the heaviness of the world and the body behind and just connecting, and I have no idea, honestly, where I go.

Dr. Howard Eisenberg: 0:24

Yeah

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:25

I think the power in tapping into our highest self, you know, and that's kind of where we are the most aware, the most non-judgmental or the least judge, the least judgmental, the most non-judgmental and the least judgmental. Same thing.​