Accessing the ‘Mental Internet’: how we are all connected by consciousness (Part 1) - Terje G. Simonsen

This week's show is with Terje Simonsen. Terje G. Simonsen is a Norwegian Historian of Ideas and non-fiction author, specializing in the esoteric and occult. He is educated at the University of Oslo, where he also has taught introductory courses on philosophical and literary works. His dissertation on the anthroposophical journal Janus received much acclaim and was released as a book in 2001. In the prestigious series The Cultural Library and The World’s Holy Scriptures, Simonsen has published essays on I and Thou, the mystically inspired main work by the dialogue philosopher Martin Buber, and The First Book of Enoch, an esoteric text from antiquity. Simonsen has received several grants, and is a full member of ESSWE, the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. - In addition, Simonsen is educated in gestalt therapy and psychosynthesis, and his varied career has also included stints in psychiatry, kindergarten, museums, security, catering etc. Today he works as a freelance writer. Simonsen is also a café aficionado, salsa dancer, amateur pianist and chess player. Since childhood Simonsen has been fascinated by ‘magical’ phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and healing—an interest based on some peculiar experiences of his own as well as strange stories told by friends and family. Later, this fascination led to extensive forays into esoteric and occult traditions, where such phenomena are not seen as chimera but as part of an expanded consciousness, and also into the science about such phenomena, i.e. parapsychology. The result is the present book, an entertaining, colorful and multifaceted good read, endorsed by several of the world’s foremost experts in the field as well as a number of other authors and critics. In this conversation, the first of a two-part conversation, Terje and I explored what he calls the mental internet, which is his metaphor for consciousness. We talked about paranormal phenomena, including his own stories and also scientific research. It really was such a deep, broad conversation, literally talking about time and space and beyond!