You only need to know the next step

This session was a beautiful reminder of how many generous, talented, creative and inspiring people are amongst us, with members sharing art, poetry, novel excerpts and novel ideas for Bernardo to reflect on.

If you're unsure where its all going, Bernardo has this advice to share: all you need to know is the next step. Follow your instinct rather than some masterplan. Later in life when you look back is when it could all make metacognitive sense.

We also discussed:

• Enlightenment & Bodhisattva in analytic idealism
• Steps towards a metaphysically agnostic neuroscience
• Euclyd's effect on Bernardo's impact
• The stubborn challenge of the hard problem of consciousness

We'll have another session to share inspiration later this year, giving space to the many contributions we didn't have time for yesterday.

Details for next week's session are now uncertain, but I'll email as soon as its confirmed.

Meanwhile, you can share upcoming questions in this Ask Me Anything page:

AMA Meeting with Bernardo

19th May 2026 | AMA with Bernardo

Bernardo Kastrup: With Reality in MindAmir Giles

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Amir

Timestamps

0:00:00 Art, ideas and the next step
0:04:34 Euclyd: a Trojan horse for idealism?
0:11:06 A childhood drawing returns as a personal mandala
0:17:18 Can you overthink a symbol?
0:18:37 Could perception reveal quantum entanglement?
0:28:17 Daniel Ambrosi: landscapes beyond the photograph
0:38:43 What does a bodhisattva choose?
0:40:09 Enlightenment as seeing through dissociation
0:48:49 Can thermodynamics dissolve the hard problem?
0:52:11 An illusion still needs someone to experience it
0:55:07 Quantities describe experience—but can they create it?
0:57:38 What happens when philosophy becomes a profession?
1:00:15 Olivier’s drawings: ideas becoming images
1:04:31 Art as communication from the unconscious
1:09:31 Ruben’s novel: dreams finding their story
1:18:04 When interpreting a symbol could spoil the work
1:25:06 Can we study pure consciousness without metaphysics?
1:32:23 Neuroscience and its hidden assumptions
1:37:17 Two meanings of the physical brain
1:42:05 Tristano’s invention: music, mathematics and code
1:50:04 What happens when a chord becomes a shape?
1:56:25 What do images sound like?
1:59:24 Sharing a creation without carrying it alone
2:05:56 You only need to know the next step
2:08:27 Be kind to yourself: you don’t need every answer

Recording