Casual Temple

TRANSCRIPT

(Transcript is auto-generated; errors are unintentional.)

00:00:05 Merrily

Welcome to Casual Temple podcast episode 54, and I'm your host, Merrily Duffy. at Casual Temple. Our mission is to discover our connection to the unseen world of spirit, and how that empowers us to know our true selves. Supporting casual temple is easy, subscribe and leave a star review on your favorite podcast.

00:00:20 Merrily

Platform. You can also donate via Red Circle page LinkedIn. The show notes below. We love hearing from you, so visit casualtemple.com to.

00:00:26 Merrily

Share.

00:00:26 Merrily

Your thoughts? Join our mailing list for a chance to win a free or reading with me barely to pick a winner every month and your name stays in until you win. And this episode we're thrilled to host Siddharth Ramakrishnan.

00:00:36 Merrily

A neuroscientist and author of Neuro Tero, Siddharth's work develops into the connection between neuroscience and archetypal wisdom of tarot cards. Siddharth shares his journey of lending his scientific expertise with his passion for tarot. We discover how his unique perspective offers a fresh and enlightening approach to understanding the brains, intuitive processes, and the symbolic language of tarot. Whether you're a seasoned tarot reader are simply curious about the mysteries of the mind.

00:00:59 Merrily

This episode is for you, so stay tuned to Casual Temple podcast for Esoteric Explorers and meet.

00:01:07 Merrily

Welcome to the casual temple. Today we are so excited to host our guest Siddharth Rama Krishnan, who is a neuroscientist and author behind the Neuro Taro, which is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between neuroscience and the archetypal wisdom of tarot. So DART, we are so excited to welcome you to.

00:01:27 Merrily

Welcome you to casual temp.

00:01:28 Siddharth

Oh.

00:01:30 Siddharth

Thank you so much. Thank you for the invite. I'm really excited to be here.

00:01:33 Merrily

Yes, thank you. Yeah, a friend of mine. So I how we got connected is a friend of mine. He had seen you do a talk here in Seattle. Can't remember where. I feel like it was probably at the UW.

00:01:45 Siddharth

OK.

00:01:47 Merrily

I'm not sure though.

00:01:49 Merrily

And he told me he was like, oh, you.

00:01:52 Merrily

That would be a really good guest for your podcast. Kind of up your alley. Like. Absolutely. And so yeah, everything that you talk about your book is like things I love. I love talking about and thinking about. So yeah, I'm so excited you're here.

00:02:06 Siddharth

Thank you. Thank you so much.

00:02:08 Merrily

Yeah. Well, here we just kind of start at the beginning. So we get to kind of know you a little bit and sort of the background of how you, you know wanted to write the neuro tarot. So yeah, wherever you want to begin with your story, that would be great.

00:02:25 Siddharth

Yeah. So I am a neuroscientist by training. I've been doing that for about 25 years now.

00:02:34 Siddharth

But also for about 25 years my I got my first deck of catalog cards also and when I was about 21 and so I've been doing some tarot reading since then.

00:02:47 Siddharth

So that's kind of where it all started. I was kind of doing it on the down low because as a scientist it was difficult for me to talk about it with fellow scientists.

00:02:59 Siddharth

But then over time I got more and more confidence, and because it was all working, you know, the tarot and I used to go to tarot readings pretty often that I was like, you know what is going on, like, what is really going on behind, like, and why am I so excited about getting this reading?

00:03:03 Merrily

Right.

00:03:18 Siddharth

And then is it really guiding me and how is it guiding me and that's kind of how the exploration started and then?

00:03:27 Siddharth

And then that kind of worked its way into me, creating my own deck of cards called the Neuro Taro cards. And while doing research for that I was like, OK, now that I'm really doing this, I need to know what is the science behind Taro. And I found that there was not really a book for it. So that's that's kind of the.

00:03:45 Siddharth

Inspiration for the book? Ohh.

00:03:47 Merrily

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that that's so great. I love that. You were kind of doing both things. You're like, I'm a neuroscientist, but I also. Really.

00:03:54 Merrily

Like tarot like.

00:03:57 Merrily

That's so fascinating. Oh, my gosh. So when you were learning tarot or, you know, neuroscience, did you have anybody in your life that was that supporting you or was it all, like book learning or how were you kind of going about it on your own?

00:04:13 Siddharth

Pretty much the tarot was book learning, you know, picking up my, my, my sister who was living in Philly at that time. And I lived in Chicago. She sent me a deck of cards and she got her own first deck at that point. And we were kind of on the phone, like, you know, opening the books, the white little white book and going, what's going on, doing readings for each other.

00:04:34 Siddharth

That's kind of how it all started and and then slowly went to professionals to get my own readings done, but didn't really have a mentor of say in the tarot world. I actually didn't know the tarot world existed until about 20, 2019-2020 is when I started. Like really doing that.

00:04:56 Siddharth

And realized the wealth of knowledge that's out there on the Taro and how many people have exploded from different angles. It's been really amazing to see that.

00:05:05 Merrily

Yeah, for sure. Ohh I.

00:05:06 Merrily

Love it? It's so cute.

00:05:08 Merrily

Have that visual of you and your sister.

00:05:10 Merrily

On the phone.

00:05:13 Merrily

I tried.

00:05:13 Merrily

To figure it out, I love it.

00:05:15 Merrily

That's so cute.

00:05:17 Merrily

Oh my goodness. So.

00:05:21 Merrily

As you were OK, so I guess it's sort of a chicken and the egg question, but.

00:05:26 Merrily

How did you what inspired you to explore the connection between, like your studying neuroscience by day and tarot by night? Like what was like the was there something that went? I gotta what is the connect?

00:05:39 Merrily

Here like was there a pitiful moment or anything?

00:05:41 Siddharth

Yeah, it was actually the opposite, where in 29 around 20/17/2018 I was feeling a little isolated and really want to get back into my own art practice and cuz I used to paint a lot and I kind of stopped it. Also while doing the scientific stuff.

00:05:43 Merrily

Oh.

00:06:03 Siddharth

So I really wanted to paint and then.

00:06:09 Siddharth

At the same time, I wanted to explore the tarot cards and the imagery behind them in much more detail, and then I really I realized that there was this whole, you know, everybody has like a deck and that they love and there's so much imagery and.

00:06:14 Merrily

Hmm.

00:06:25 Siddharth

And I was thinking about how.

00:06:28 Siddharth

All the tarot cards, especially the Major Arcana, deal with these life changing events, which are all in in some ways external, but a lot of them are internal about, you know, love and emotion and and choices.

00:06:44 Siddharth

And so I really thought there was a big correspondence between the brain working and the Major Arcana. So I started to kind of doodle and draw them out.

00:06:59 Siddharth

And as I was doing that, I really then started looking into OK, if I'm looking at this image and I'm immediately getting this flash of like, this is what it means. So where how am I going from looking at this picture to getting that flash of insight? Like, how is that that leap happening? And I really want to see if anyone had done.

00:07:09 Siddharth

Hmm.

00:07:20 Siddharth

Research behind it.

00:07:24 Siddharth

And a lot of the work was into Jungian psychology, and those kinds of stuff, but now not into really why? Like, how are we wired to kind of move from image to intuitive explanation and that's kind of what rabbit hole I just like went down that after that. So and it was so fascinating.

00:07:38 Siddharth

Hmm.

00:07:44 Siddharth

To observe that.

00:07:45 Merrily

Oh yeah. Oh, my goodness. Well, so how so? How does the brain process symbols on a terror card different differently, if any differently than any other types of visual stimuli? Is there any difference, or are they similar?

00:08:01 Siddharth

I think they're similar, I think.

00:08:03 Merrily

Hmm, OK.

00:08:05 Siddharth

We.

00:08:07 Siddharth

From from the. From the research I've done, it looks like we as humans are wired to look at patterns and make some kind of sense out of it and.

00:08:18 Merrily

Hmm.

00:08:22 Siddharth

We have that ability because we we we need, we need that intuitive quick processing in order to survive in order for us to decide if you know if if this thing is gonna attack me or if if I need to move, move left or right or and if I don't do that, I'm going to.

00:08:41 Siddharth

I'm gonna die basically. So. So we have that circuit in us and over time I guess it's.

00:08:52 Siddharth

We don't constantly face those life or death situations, but we still have that inherent intuitive ability and a lot of the research about this has gone done, been done mainly in doctors who need to make those split second decisions, especially during surgery. Like should I cut here like?

00:09:09 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:09:12 Siddharth

Like close this wound here and those kinds of stuff. And they found that those intuitive decision making where they are.

00:09:23 Siddharth

Making those very quick decisions are much, much faster. About 15 to 20 seconds faster than a logical like. If I do this then I then this happens kind of thing and that could be a really life or death. And if you're a doctor and.

00:09:37 Siddharth

A patient.

00:09:38 Merrily

Right.

00:09:40 Siddharth

And I think that's what the tarot symbology is tapping into is you have these.

00:09:49 Siddharth

Pictures and symbols and also you have certain words or meanings associated with them, and that's allowing you or allowing your brain to kind of unconsciously move along certain directions to make make sense out of what's going on. We are also probably at the same time.

00:10:07 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:10:11 Siddharth

Taking in lot of.

00:10:13 Siddharth

Unconscious cues from our current the person in front of us, we're probably taking in if they're face to face. They're the tone, their body language and all those things. And if they're not face to face, then you're probably some people ask for a picture. Some people ask for a specific question. You're taking in those cues to figure out what the.

00:10:34 Siddharth

So what he is going to be so and I and that's kind of what's shaping A Taro reading on some level. I mean I in the in the book I kind of say that this definition of divination is about.

00:10:48 Siddharth

How we are tapping into our unconscious brain to make to make conscious choices in the in or interpretations. It is not divination in the sense of.

00:10:55 Merrily

Hmm.

00:11:02 Siddharth

Having psychics or medium suddenly get that flash of like energy or something from outside because there's not much scientific research behind that there. We just don't have the information.

00:11:08 Siddharth

Can you hear me?

00:11:14 Siddharth

On how that happens, I believe I believe that happens as well, but I just don't know the the background behind that yet so.

00:11:16 Merrily

Right.

00:11:22 Merrily

Yes, I like that you distinguish the two because I do think it gets those two things get jumbled up quite a bit, especially with tarot. And I think, yeah, definitely, I've experienced both of those things for sure, whether it's divination or like just telling you about your own subconscious.

00:11:42 Merrily

So like so kind of the the question I have sort of along those lines for sure is have you looked at or have you looked at like if somebody is reading for themselves versus somebody else because I am terrible at reading tarot for myself because I will tell myself.

00:12:01 Merrily

All sorts of BS stories about how it's not a bad thing, you know, but I'm very I'm very great at reading for everybody else. Or is there any sort of like?

00:12:15 Merrily

Connection or study around that at all.

00:12:18 Siddharth

Yeah. So it looks like.

00:12:23 Siddharth

So you have two different parts of your brain. One part of your brain is called the default Mode network, which is the inherent sense of self. It's going to also help you plan your future like five years down. You can also like almost visualize yourself.

00:12:42 Siddharth

Five years down the line or something like that. So that's the network that's really going to give you that solid.

00:12:49 Siddharth

This is me and also if I ask you about planning your future, what do you look like 10 years down the line? That's the part of the brain that's gonna activate. And that's a network. It's not just one part of the brain, it's a network that goes between kind of right above your eye. That area over there and also up.

00:13:09 Siddharth

Up here in those areas, so it's kind of a network of those two going on.

00:13:15 Siddharth

And then that has constantly fighting with another part of your network called the Frontoparietal Network, which is again a network which is.

00:13:29 Siddharth

Kind of in denial or is kind of telling you not to accept certain thing.

00:13:31 Merrily

Hmm.

00:13:37 Siddharth

So when maybe when you're doing readings for yourself, you are having a conflict between those two different things. One of them is saying something and the other one is saying, you know that that I don't accept it. I don't believe what you're saying, basically. And this is the same denial that happens when you tell, when you, when you're doing a reading for someone else.

00:13:57 Siddharth

And they don't want to accept what you're saying. That's the one. That's the one that's getting, like, activated and saying, you know what? I don't. I hear you. But I don't believe.

00:13:59 Merrily

Yeah, totally.

00:14:06 Siddharth

That right and I don't wanna be my boyfriend because I hear you completely, you know. But he's the best, you know? So. So it's it seems like there's a.

00:14:12 Merrily

Right.

00:14:19 Siddharth

Ohh there's this this thing that that that goes on that that.

00:14:23 Siddharth

It's almost like a plot denial network that you have in you and that you have that mainly to.

00:14:26 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:14:31 Siddharth

Kind of put restrictions and tone down you kind of inhibit resonances, kind of like if you're always acting on your impulses, you might kind.

00:14:41 Siddharth

Of.

00:14:42 Siddharth

Die. So it's it's kind of like it's kind of a a a barrier to make sure that you're.

00:14:44 Merrily

Shrek.

00:14:50 Siddharth

Is this OK? Is this the right thing? And I think part of our defense mechanism is to have that, like really strengthen and we don't wanna believe in in the in the new insight that we're getting, I think.

00:14:51 Merrily

Hmm.

00:15:03 Merrily

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is, like, very interesting. And how you explain that?

00:15:07 Merrily

For sure, yeah.

00:15:09 Merrily

Yep, I I agree with the denial part on on both. On both ends, there's some denial for sure.

00:15:19 Merrily

Yeah. So this so.

00:15:22 Merrily

I'm trying to figure how to phrase this particular question, but.

00:15:26 Merrily

With different people, when they look at the same card, they might have like a similar sort of archetypal understanding of it, but obviously they're going to pull from their own personal story right to read the cards. But is there is generally what people are seeing sort of the same, or is it just slightly different, like neuro, neurologically?

00:15:48 Siddharth

It's very different and it's kind of funny. Funny, because I think the similarities are going to arise because a lot of times you, you have archetypes defined by the meanings in the little book that you get. And usually even though the symbologies or even the drawings might be completely different, there is some.

00:16:09 Siddharth

Words that kind of follow through pretty much across across decks, and I think that's where some of the similarity in interpretation comes from. But what has been strange is they've actually found that.

00:16:26 Siddharth

Even cultural upbringing can change the way we look at things, and what we observe in, in, in, in, in, any kind of image like they showed pictures of aquariums to people and asked people from the western world to to talk about what they see. The first five things they see and the people from say, Japan or China.

00:16:46 Siddharth

We talk about the first five things they see.

00:16:48 Siddharth

And whereas one set of people would report, you know, the fish and the frogs and stuff, and then other people report like bubbles and, like, you know, the color of the water or like, the even, like, very simple things like that, they're very different in what people observe first. So.

00:17:07 Siddharth

And with the you can imagine then with the with the image of a tattoo card. What does your eye get drawn to is going to be very different and I've done different workshops on this and.

00:17:16 Siddharth

Invariably, even if you pull the fool card, someone will say I see the dog and some people will say I see the mountains and other people will say I see the central figure with this flowery pattern on his dress and and everybody has a different thing that their eye is drawn too. And I talk about that a little bit in the book with some exercises where almost.

00:17:37 Siddharth

Are you really by? Are you, are you biasing yourself by looking at the same symbology over and over again and maybe look at something and then come back the next day and force yourself to look at some other part of that same card and see.

00:17:50 Siddharth

If that changes your interpretation of of that particular card, this is fascinating. I don't know if you heard of Ellen Lorenzi Prince. She is an amazing tarot reader, and she designed a bunch of card decks, and she did one whole session workshop.

00:18:11 Siddharth

The Omega Institute ones on.

00:18:14 Siddharth

The negative imagery in a lot of the cards and the card she pulled up with the 10 of cups and which is normally like a lot of people talk about how this family is standing with like this big rainbow of cups in front of them. And then she says. But have you seen their faces and you don't know what their.

00:18:20 Merrily

Ohh yeah.

00:18:33 Siddharth

What their faces look like because their backs are like towards you and so maybe they're not enjoying this like you know, it was like a completely like I'm like I'm like ohh I I never thought of that, you know. And so just like that.

00:18:38 Merrily

MM.

00:18:45 Merrily

Yeah.

00:18:51 Siddharth

And then after that, I'm just starting to notice, like, you know, who's looking at what and you know, is everything going on? So. So yeah, I don't, I really don't think different people see the same thing in the cards. But I think the the through line might be how have we been used to or or adapted to those words that have been.

00:18:56 Merrily

A friend.

00:19:10 Siddharth

Associated with each of them maybe.

00:19:13 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

00:19:15 Merrily

And as we were talking, obviously I'm thinking of the writer Wait Smith deck, right, which is, you know, most people know what that one is. And you know, it was designed by a a group of Western people. So things tend to read from left to right. And then when you're talking about like, say, somebody from Japan, they, you know, read the opposite direction. So then it's like.

00:19:35 Merrily

Oh well, that's interesting. Thinking like the energy would before if you laid them out, the story would be kind of different, right, like back backwards and forwards.

00:19:45 Merrily

That's needy. Oh, and because you mentioned say, like the 10 of cups, right. I'm curious about your your stance on if you pull a card and it's upside down, do you consider it like what is that called the inverse of what like say you pull it and it's not the right side up. Do you consider that?

00:20:05 Merrily

The opposite of what it originally means. Or do you even?

00:20:09 Merrily

Or do you turn?

00:20:09 Siddharth

I don't I don't use. I don't use reverse meanings. I I tend to not go there. I I.

00:20:12 Merrily

OK.

00:20:17 Siddharth

Yeah, I've. I've since I met a lot of people who use it and and I realized that, you know, the the the amount of layers you can keep adding to these things is like amazing. So no, I'm I stick with just the straight up ones and.

00:20:29 Siddharth

Yeah.

00:20:35 Siddharth

And then for me, it's more, it's more about the story that the cards give than the individual images. So until the full read, the full spread is in front of me. I don't even start the interpretation of it.

00:20:42 Merrily

Yeah.

00:20:49 Merrily

Right. Yeah, yeah. You definitely can see, like, you can kind of get a story from one card for sure. But, like seeing how they interact with each other as a story is like I I agree, it's.

00:21:01 Merrily

Like.

00:21:02 Merrily

It starts coming alive for sure.

00:21:03 Siddharth

Yeah, yeah.

00:21:05 Merrily

Yeah, yeah. So, OK, yeah. So you gave us some sort of exercises that you described from your book.

00:21:12 Merrily

But beyond tarot, do you see similar unconscious like synergies at play in other forms of art and storytelling? Like, do you see sort of like, I don't know, maybe the same archetypes and tarot and a movie or?

00:21:27 Merrily

In different types of storytelling.

00:21:30 Siddharth

I mean, what do you mean I mean?

00:21:33 Siddharth

We we definitely have similar archetypes, say in astrology, where we have the melafix and the benefits and you know, people talk about the feminine and the masculine energy of different planets and how Mars is this like quick war planet. But then Saturn is this slow grinding like also.

00:21:53 Siddharth

So we have those different kinds of.

00:21:57 Siddharth

Metaphors which are in different different divination systems, whether it be you know astrology or tarot, is that what you're.

00:22:01 Merrily

Hmm.

00:22:06 Siddharth

Talking about or.

00:22:07 Merrily

Yeah. Just kind of like, do maybe in uh, in neuroscience. Do they have they kind of mapped similar types of, I don't know, archetypal experiences with different media that matches or is that not like something that they've looked at?

00:22:25 Siddharth

I don't think so. I don't think they've looked at that they.

00:22:34 Siddharth

In in neuroscience, it's usually they. I think. So far they've done mainly on visualization aspects of like if, if I visualize myself to be the winner of this game or the, you know, the champion and those kinds of stuff.

00:22:54 Siddharth

But not really on archetypes. That's again there. There's a very really interesting socio cultural differences. If if I ask you to think about yourself and then I ask you to think about mother or a mother figure or a father figure, what they found is.

00:23:15 Siddharth

Folks who grew up in Eastern cultures, where the joint family is much more of a a norm the self and the mother are linked.

00:23:27 Merrily

Hmm.

00:23:27 Siddharth

Whereas if you have, if you grow up in a household where your mother and you are, you don't grow up in a joint family, then there's a more of a dead link between the self and the mother. So I can kind of think about how similarly other archetypes of.

00:23:46 Siddharth

That we that we we we think about like Empress and Hermit and the those kinds of archetypes of mother and father and power and and those kind of things are going to be very different.

00:23:55 Siddharth

Based on your sociocultural upbringing, is what I would would think about. It's a really good, interesting research project you you think about actually.

00:24:02 Merrily

Yeah.

00:24:05 Merrily

Yeah. So in sort of looking at this, what was something that was surprising? Was there anything that was surprising to you and kind of looking at these two like neuroscience in Ontario?

00:24:18 Siddharth

Yeah. What was fascinating to me is the. So the, the, the, the social aspect of things on how, when, when, when, when somebody comes and comes to you for a reading. I first thought it was just more about the, you know, what am I listening to? And.

00:24:24 Siddharth

Hmm.

00:24:38 Siddharth

How am I responding? And then similarly, what are you listening and responding? But then I when I was doing the research, I found there's a there is a network in you which is called a mentalizing network, where you're almost creating a golem of the other individual in your head and you're first creating.

00:24:56 Siddharth

This.

00:24:57 Siddharth

Persona in your head and then your defining their desires and and and aspirations and inspirations. On top of that little mental picture of this other person.

00:25:13 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:25:15 Siddharth

Which kind of sort of seemed like almost like a a witchy thing to do, right, but almost like creating this puppet inside you. And you're like, you know, and then. But you're doing this almost on an everyday instance, like you, you have to do that in order to interact with people and figure out, like, what are they going to do? Are they going to like?

00:25:20 Merrily

Totally, yeah.

00:25:29 Siddharth

Yeah.

00:25:35 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:25:36 Siddharth

Move towards me, are they? Move away from me. Are they going to smile at me or not? You're like constantly doing it. And then your your brain is predicting that they gonna do this and then maybe it matches up. Maybe it doesn't, you know. And then you're kind of adding other stuff to it. But that's literally what you're doing in a reading and and that was, like, completely fascinating to me. How?

00:25:53 Siddharth

How much more magical can that be, right?

00:25:56 Merrily

Yeah, totally. Yeah.

00:25:58 Siddharth

So.

00:25:58 Siddharth

That was something that blew my mind. And then the other thing that was really fascinating was.

00:26:03 Siddharth

This new field of neuro forecasting that's there.

00:26:07 Merrily

Ooh.

00:26:08 Siddharth

Which is very new and the idea is that if you right now asked me, hey, you know, I'll play you 3 songs and can you please tell me which song do you think will be the most popular next year or six months from now or something like?

00:26:26 Siddharth

And then I might say, oh, I like song A, but my subconscious brain might actually be saying no, no, no. It's song D or Song C or something, right. And and then if I if I if I did a a poll of all the subconscious.

00:26:40 Siddharth

Around it will actually correctly point towards the song that is going to be the most downloaded six months or a year down the line, even though they might be in the in just telling you they might be saying something else.

00:26:48 Siddharth

Wow.

00:26:53 Merrily

Yeah.

00:26:54 Siddharth

So the idea that your brain or our collective brains on some level can forecast the future.

00:27:03 Siddharth

That was that was again really fascinating because I think till now the brain as a predictive machine is more about what's happening in the next instant or maybe 5 days down the line or even like what is gonna, what am I gonna think about when I when I turned the corner? So is there gonna be a coffeehouse?

00:27:19 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:27:22 Siddharth

You're kind of thinking about those things, but not like so far there was no evidence that.

00:27:24 Siddharth

Yeah.

00:27:28 Siddharth

Some people are actually thinking about like that far ahead, but we should have had that idea because we are farmers and you know, historically humans have been thinking about seasonality, yes, and years and planning. You know, even when you're planning a baby, you have to plan, like, so far ahead. So we have been thinking about it so.

00:27:48 Siddharth

Obviously should be there in US, so I guess on some level forecasting is inherent to us, so, so maybe that's also something we're tapping into when we're thinking.

00:27:58 Siddharth

About Taro. So.

00:27:59 Merrily

Yeah, that is so fascinating like.

00:28:03 Merrily

Like underneath, we're kind of like we we know that we're we're going to need like in the instance of a song like, you know, in six months or something like that's the song that's going to like, hit us all, you know, in the same way. But we don't know it yet. Oh, that's so strange but I.

00:28:18 Merrily

Love.

00:28:18 Merrily

It and it's making you think too, cuz I'm sure you've read about or seen people who are always.

00:28:25 Merrily

Ahead of the curve, right? Like, say, they're either with, like, some sort of invention or a song or something like that. But it doesn't get the recognition because they were.

00:28:35 Merrily

Like way too far?

00:28:36 Merrily

Yeah, there's, yeah.

00:28:38 Siddharth

Yeah, yeah. And also I think you're you're hitting about another thing about how a lot of times certain things come up almost together like different people come to the same thing together. That's collective unconscious. Suddenly like emerges, right.

00:28:44 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

00:28:49 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

00:28:52 Merrily

Yeah. So there's kind of two that, yeah, there's definitely that happens too, where you're like, did they like two different movie companies put out like the same type of movie or, like, did they do that on purpose or, like, did that just have it?

00:29:04 Merrily

I don't know I.

00:29:05 Merrily

I don't know.

00:29:07 Merrily

Yeah, that's also really fascinating. Uh goodness. Well, So what do you hope when somebody reads your book? Like, what do you hope is the take away for for your readers?

00:29:20 Siddharth

Yeah. First of all, I don't expect expect experience with either neuroscience or Taro. My, my whole ethos has been we all have brains and they are we I think we are all smart in our own different ways and I think scientists have made it a little bit too. You know you need to have all this education not understand it. But I think that's all.

00:29:40 Siddharth

********. I think we need to all.

00:29:42 Siddharth

We all have these amazing brains with amazing capacities and and in a way tarot is a.

00:29:50 Siddharth

Way for us.

00:29:52 Siddharth

Uh to delve into it, to delve into our subconscious a little bit and and understand what's going on. So I'm hoping that people who are reading the book will be able to explore imagery and in the process, try and understand how the different, how we're using different aspects of our brain to tap into our intuition.

00:30:14 Siddharth

For the tarot enthusiasts, what I'm hoping that they really gain from it is one thing I've done in a lot of these exercises is is kind of break down the process by OK, we take a card like and 1st we look at the image and and what is it.

00:30:33 Siddharth

We see so almost like breaking down the steps by which we move from that image to that sudden insight and.

00:30:42 Siddharth

The hope is by by breaking it down, you become better at at the process because you know that, hey, you know, I I do. I kind of skip this step or or or become more aware of what parts of your body are reacting to a particular emotion.

00:31:01 Siddharth

Feeling. Am I feeling my sadness over here, or am I feeling it in my gut, you know, and those kinds of you might just be very quickly doing it without ever realizing where you're feeling it, so maybe this process will allow you to be more bodily or aware of where, where this connection is going on.

00:31:20 Siddharth

One thing I found in my own tarot practice, which I was not very good at, was that reflection piece of I said this is going to happen or I said this is what is the choice. But was that the right intuitive guess right? Because sometimes our intuitions might not be correct. It's because.

00:31:40 Siddharth

What they found, at least in the scientific field, is.

00:31:43 Siddharth

Intuition is a very good thing for you to make a decision. It's very needed for you to make sure you're not paralyzed in just in one place, but you have to move forward, but it might not have always been the correct decision. It might be the best decision at this point of time, but it might not have been the right choice. So you you kind of go back and say.

00:31:58 Merrily

Right.

00:32:03 Siddharth

OK, why did I make that choice? Was that because of this? And so that kind of reflection I think really would help the tarot tarot reader become better at their at their what they do basically, they'll become more.

00:32:16 Siddharth

And more intuitive, because that's what happens when you, when you learn from your past intuitive practices, and that's what doctors do, and that's what actualites do, because they they probably go back and watch videos of how they played the game and be like, hey, I reacted this way at this point, but I made the wrong choice.

00:32:25 Merrily

Right.

00:32:37 Siddharth

Why did I react that way? Was I looking at this? I mean maybe I should have looked at the other pattern over there. So you kind of have to go back and check yourself. Almost.

00:32:45 Merrily

Right. Oh, that's such a good point.

00:32:48 Merrily

Yeah, because I think.

00:32:48 Merrily

It is. It's a practice, right? It's always a practice. So you are learning from sort of when you didn't as a when you're using your intuition when you didn't maybe hit hit it or whatever and then say like what, what was what was the thing that you know I didn't process at that point. That's a good that's a good that's a good one.

00:33:09 Merrily

Oh. Oh, gosh. Yeah. So many things, but.

00:33:13 Merrily

So, like, where can folks find out more about you and any future events or projects that you have lined up? So yeah.

00:33:22 Siddharth

Yeah. So I my website is www.brainmystic.com. That's BRAINMYSTIC brain mystic.com. I'm also on Instagram at side BITS ID BTS.

00:33:39 Siddharth

I do have a Facebook profile, but I don't use it that much and but those are the 2 main places. You can also e-mail me anytime at nurotaro@gmail.com. The things I have lined up. I'm still doing the book kind of signing. I have one.

00:33:58 Siddharth

Coming up in Los Angeles on May 14th at UCLA and then I.

00:34:06 Siddharth

I'm I used to have a a course online course on this and I kind of abandoned it. Now I'm kind of going back to that now. I really want people to kind of start getting back into this and kind of maybe do a group practice of some of the exercises. So I'm getting back into that and that's also on the website.

00:34:13 Merrily

Yeah.

00:34:26 Siddharth

If you my tarot deck is also available on the website, so if you want to get more of the neuro tarot deck, you're welcome to. People are welcome to go there.

00:34:33 Siddharth

Yeah. And what I'm working on now I'm I have a contract with the villain on another book, and this one is due at the end of June, and I haven't, but I haven't put pen to paper yet. I've.

00:34:46 Merrily

Oh my God.

00:34:46 Siddharth

Just been like.

00:34:48 Siddharth

But I'm hoping it all just, you know, flows and this one is called.

00:34:49 Merrily

You're going to go, yes, yes.

00:34:53 Siddharth

Hired for magic and the idea is what is the the brain science behind?

00:34:55 Siddharth

Woo.

00:35:01 Siddharth

Like a lot of magic that involves rituals, it involves incantation. It involves faith and and those kind of things. So I'm kind of trying to take about each of those things and think about the neuroscience behind each of those is kind of what I've been really contemplating.

00:35:21 Siddharth

On for the last couple of months.

00:35:22 Siddharth

So yeah.

00:35:23 Merrily

Ohh my gosh. Well I am definitely going to want to talk with you about that one as well, if you don't mind because I practice magic myself. So it's like that's my jam, so I'm excited.

00:35:35 Siddharth

I think all of us do like whether it's like on a, on a, on a big like I'm a witch kind of way or like on a small on an everyday basis.

00:35:37 Siddharth

Yes.

00:35:40 Merrily

Totally, yeah, yeah.

00:35:43 Siddharth

So I was like, I was talking to my daughter about she's like 5 and I was talking to her about it. And she's like, oh, which is real. I'm like, yeah, which is a real. And then. So we were talking about, like, what is a witch and what is magic and and. And I really think it's kind of.

00:35:55 Merrily

Yeah.

00:36:03 Siddharth

Brought in the short shrift, you know over the years, but I.

00:36:06 Siddharth

Hmm.

00:36:07 Siddharth

I feel like if you really think about it, sometimes you feel like the energy pulsing in your fingers or you know and like, what is that and and where is that coming from? Where is that and when you meet somebody, you feel that that energy flow between you both and then I guess some people are much more attuned to it and tap into it and other people are in.

00:36:12 Merrily

Yeah.

00:36:27 Siddharth

Or even with nature like you know objects. And when we put when we add like power to objects and sometimes that those become idles and sometimes they become symbols or sigils you know and and those kinds of stuff.

00:36:34 Merrily

Yeah.

00:36:40 Siddharth

So I'm really excited about that.

00:36:43 Merrily

Oh my gosh.

00:36:44 Merrily

Yes, I like. I like where your brain and your and your hands are going as far as like, writing, writing books. They're like, very intriguing and interesting so, oh, my gosh. Well, so sort of the last thing that we kind of end up with is you've shared so much wisdom. But what words of wisdom would you like to leave?

00:37:03 Merrily

Us with today.

00:37:07 Siddharth

I think my main.

00:37:10 Siddharth

Mantra has been.

00:37:16 Siddharth

There is a lot of wonder within us and in some ways it's the Hinduism aspect of how the world inside is much bigger than the world outside on some level. So I just want everyone to explore that onder within us and and and and.

00:37:36 Siddharth

And I think we will find a lot more commonality between each of us when we, when we start exploring that wonder within.

00:37:41 Siddharth

Us.

00:37:42 Siddharth

Yeah.

00:37:43 Merrily

Oh, beautifully said. Oh yes, everybody, let's explore the wonder within us for sure.

00:37:49 Merrily

Oh, well, so that I'm so happy that we got connected and this so fascinating. Thank you so much.

00:37:54 Siddharth

Thank you so much. It was such a pleasure talking with you.

00:38:01 Merrily

I'm so thankful to have gotten connected with Siddharth and really look forward to his next book and any projects he is involved with. So keep up with Siddharth by checking out the show notes below. Do you remember to like, follow and subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform? It really helps us grow. Thank you for listening and being an important.

00:38:16 Merrily

Part of casual temple.

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EPISODE 54 - Siddharth Ramakrishnan

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