Top Psychologist & Scientist (Donald Hoffman): Science Has the Answer to Why Seeing True Reality Would Kill You!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2025

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WARNING: Nothing you see is real, and your brain evolved to hide the truth?! Top psychologist Donald Hoffman reveals the mathematical proof we’re living in a virtual illusion, how space-time is just a headset, and why consciousness is the real code. Donald Hoffman is an award-winning cognitive scientist and professor at the University of California, Irvine. He is best known for his groundbreaking research into perception and consciousness, and is also the author of the book ‘The Case Against Reality’. He explains: Why seeing true reality would kill us How evolution hides reality to help us survive What’s really behind the space-time illusion How your brain acts like a VR headset How consciousness builds the universe Why space, gravity, and nuclear forces don’t actually fit together 00:00 Intro 02:30 Do We Understand What We're Seeing? 02:35 Rhonda's Mission, Drive, and the Problems She Wants to Solve 03:03 Space-Time 05:39 Are We in a Virtual Reality World? 07:50 Darwin’s Theory Suggests Our World Isn’t Real 13:06 What Would Reality Be Without Our Senses? 18:07 Simulations That Prove This Isn’t Real 23:28 What This Means for Living a Better Life 33:43 Understand Who You Are 38:24 Simulation Theories 43:18 What’s the Meaning of Life in This Reality? 44:56 Did Someone or Something Create Consciousness? 46:59 Where Does God Fit in This Reality? 48:24 Was Jesus Divine Beyond Any of Us? 52:56 Near-Death Experience and What Happens When We Die 01:02:05 Grief and Love 01:05:14 Light and Tunnel in Near-Death Experiences 01:07:25 Why Do We Suffer? 01:18:49 What Is Your Theory of Consciousness Proving? 01:24:55 Biggest Discovery: We Can Engineer Time 01:28:59 The Consequences of Your Findings 01:38:26 Mental Health and Illusions 01:45:36 How This Reality Helps You Deal with Life 01:52:24 The Nature of Reality and AI 01:57:54 What Would You Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail? Follow Professor Donald: X - https://bit.ly/4obiFIj Instagram - https://bit.ly/478nUT3 UC Irvine - https://bit.ly/3ITwVFC You can purchase Professor Donald’s book, ‘The Case Against Reality’, here: https://amzn.to/4ocB7k3 The Diary Of A CEO: ⬜️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ⬜️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ⬜️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ⬜️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ⬜️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ⬜️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett Justworks - http://Justworks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The world that you're seeing isn't the true world.
0:03.1	All of this that I'm seeing right now is just a virtual reality.
0:06.3	It's like you're born with a headset on playing a video game.
0:08.6	That's your reality.
0:09.5	But if you're the programmer who wrote the code for the game,
0:12.3	you know that there's an entire world outside of it,
0:14.6	and as the programmer, you can do miracles?
0:16.8	And do you think we're getting closer to being able to edit the code?
0:19.2	That's exactly what I'm working on right now. And we're opening up a realm of new technologies that are far more powerful than anything we've seen before, like time travel. And nuclear bombs will be like firecrackers? Will people suffer? So it's like Pandora's box. There's all sorts of nasty surprises. But they also could be miraculous. But either way, just in the last few months it started to crack open.
0:38.1	So let's talk about that.
0:39.2	Okay.
0:39.8	So Professor Donald Hoffman is the cognitive scientist pushing the boundaries of how we perceive reality.
0:44.3	And how we can unlock our full potential as human beings.
0:47.8	According to Darwin's theory, our sensory systems, eyes, ears, smell, touch are not shaped to show us the truth. They were shaped to keep you alive long enough to reproduce successfully. Because seeing the truth takes too much time and energy. And so whatever reality is, it's utterly unlike anything that I perceive. What does this all mean for the nature of how one should understand their life? Well, if you're stuck in a boring world, that's a world of your own creation. That's not the real world. And my conscious experiences are nothing but what my brain creates. And so we feel inadequate and we feel like we need to compete with other people. But you're the inventor of this whole thing. You have nothing to prove. And there are much more interesting perspectives that we can take on themselves. So if you really knew who you are, you would see no need to compare or compete.
1:32.1	And is there a way for me to understand who I am?
1:34.2	If you want to understand the truth of who you are beyond just this headset description of you,
1:39.5	then you have to...
1:43.9	Just give me 30 seconds of your time.
1:46.3	Two things I wanted to say.
1:47.5	The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after
1:51.8	week.
1:52.1	It means the world to all of us, and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and
	...

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