The Basement: Jeffrey Mishlove | Your Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness. It Filters It

The Why Files: Operation Podcast

The Why Files

Documentary, Science Fiction, Life Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Fiction

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 175 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jeffrey Mishlove has spent 50 years at the intersection of science and the paranormal. He holds the only PhD in parapsychology ever awarded by an accredited American university, earned at UC Berkeley in 1980 — and successfully defended it in court when organized skeptics tried to have it revoked. He hosted the long-running television series Thinking Allowed, conducting over 1,500 interviews with the world's leading researchers in consciousness, mysticism, and the paranormal. He was embedded in the SRI research community during the Stargate era, working alongside Targ, Puthoff, and others operating under CIA funding. In 2021, he won first prize — unanimously — in Robert Bigelow's $500,000 competition for the best scientific case that consciousness survives death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today we're sitting down with Jeffrey Mischlov. On Christmas Eve, 1985, Jeffrey got a phone call from a man named Ted Owens.
0:07.6	Owens was a former assistant to J.B. Rhine at Duke University. He claimed to control the weather and summon UFOs on command.
0:15.6	He summoned UFOs on command, huh? Must be nice. I'm still waiting for an Uber Eats I ordered last Tuesday.
0:22.6	He told Jeffrey to call the U.S. government and warn them not to send up the next space shuttle.
0:27.6	His UFOs were going to bring it down. And a month later, Challenger exploded.
0:32.6	Now that's the kind of story you're going to hear today. And Jeffrey spent 50 years as the most important interviewer in Parapsychology.
0:40.5	U.C. Berkeley gave him the only PhD in Parapsychology ever awarded by an accredited American
0:46.0	University.
0:47.2	In 2021, he won first prize and $500,000 from the Bigelow Institute for the best scientific
0:53.9	case that consciousness survives death.
0:57.0	Yeah, for Miller, he's gonna find out the IRS also survives death.
1:01.0	Taxes a death.
1:03.0	This one got emotional. Let's go down to the basement.
1:07.0	Jeffrey, welcome to the basement.
1:15.1	Thank you.
1:15.9	I'm excited to have you here.
1:17.3	It's a pleasure to be here.
1:18.9	It's weird for me because there's so much research goes into my episodes on my stupid show,
1:25.6	and you constantly come up as a primary source.
1:29.2	So thank you for your contributions.
1:33.0	This is like sitting in front of a cycle.
1:35.4	The encyclopedia.
	...

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