The Consciousness Conundrum: Idealism as the dark horse ontology, with Matt Segall

About this episode

James Faulk and Matthew David Segall discuss the implications of idealism versus physicalism in understanding consciousness and reality.

In this episode, I sit down with Matthew David Segall, an author, associate professor, and department chair in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. We explore the physicalist ontology currently dominant in the scientific world, and how that philosophy has impacted society. Segall explains how Alfred Whitehead, a mathematician, partnered with Bertrand Russell to write "Principia Mathematica," and how that effort ended in frustration. Russell was demoralized by that failure, but Whitehead devoted himself to deep research that culminated in his development of Process Philosophy, an intellectual approach that identifies process, change, and relationship as the fundamental constituents of reality, rather than static substances. Segall and I explore how anomalies under a physicalist domain can often be better explained and/or accommodated using an idealist framework. We end the conversation by discussing how under idealism, the development of mind and intelligence is a feature, not a bug. Consciousness is everywhere, so the presence and even ubiquity of non-human intelligence is not an impossibility. To learn more…

People in this episode

Host: James Faulk

Guest: Matthew David Segall

Topics covered

• consciousness
• idealism
• physicalism
• philosophy
• Process Philosophy
• non-human intelligence

Keywords

• consciousness
• idealism
• physicalism
• Process Philosophy
• non-human intelligence
• Alfred Whitehead
• Bertrand Russell

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: California Institute of Integral Studies, footnotes2plato.com, Substack

Books & works: Principia Mathematica

More episodes of Neon Galactic with James Faulk

• UFO Therapy: Erik Schlimmer on counseling experiencers and his search for General Neil McCasland · June 9, 2026 · 52 min
• The New Shaman: How LSD gave Christopher Bache the keys to the cosmos · May 20, 2026 · 1h 32m
• The Great Reset: Astrology on the coming age of NHI & technocratic overlords, with Dan Waites · May 15, 2026 · 55 min
• Trumped-Up Disclosure: Promises for UFO transparency wilting so far · May 10, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Power Games: UFOs, DNA, conspiracies, and the Lady in White, with Jon Majerowski · May 5, 2026 · 1h 21m
• Verdict? Anomalous: Famous alien evidence put to the test, with Steve Aspin and Dr. Andreas Lück · April 29, 2026 · 1h 35m