You believe that what you see, hear, and feel is an accurate representation of reality. You trust your eyes! But here's the unsettling truth: You're living an illusion constructed by your brain.

Here's the reality question: If most of what we see is actually prediction rather than raw sensory input, how much of our reality is...well, real? And at what point does 'filling in the blanks' become 'making it up'?

As humans, we are most comfortable with boundaries and neatly packaged theories. Our brains seek balance in our perceptions, yet, like the universe, there are no boundaries. When we consider reaching beyond those tenets we live by, what then?

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Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

Emotional crying is uniquely human. Among all mammals on Earth, humans alone shed tears in response to feelings. We cry at weddings, funerals, at movies, and if you're anything like me, at videos of animal abuse, at the birth of children, and at the loss of loved ones.

But here's the mystery: Why?

Join Dr. Clare Thompson as she tries to understand why her test subject and research assistant, Jordan Reeves, does not cry. Not once. Ever.

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Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

What happens when someone moves through the physical world while their conscious mind remains asleep? Sleepwalking is a phenomenon that combines sleep and wakefulness, creating a truly liminal state.

What about daydreaming?

In our story today, The Case of Charlie Stone, our main character learns something heartfelt when he begins sleepwalking in the house he inherited from his father.

Both sleepwalking and daydreaming raise the fundamental question: Where are you when you're not here?

And...where does consciousness go? Or does it really go anywhere at all?

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

In part one of The Mystery and Science of Dreams, we discussed the stages of sleep, touched on specific brain functions during those stages, and explained how the body heals, repairs, and resets the hard drive while we dream.

But the more intriguing questions remain: Why do we dream? And what is the significance?

The information highway on this subject is so deep, so far-reaching, that conjecture and philosophy, mixed with the science, will always yield the same answer.

We don't know!

Join me for part two of The Case of the Dream Traveler.

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

Every night, you die a little death. Your muscles paralyze, and your conscious mind dissolves. For 90-120 minutes, you enter a world where physics doesn't apply, where you can fly, or drown, or become someone else entirely, or your deceased great-grandmother speaks prophecy...in tongues...on another planet!

Welcome to the world of dreams. We can map every brain wave, track every REM cycle, identify the neurochemicals--but we cannot answer the question that has haunted humans since we first woke startled in caves: What are dreams for?

Join me on this three-part journey into the mystery and science of dreams. While this subject could be a fifty-part series, I'll cover the major points of how, and delve deeper into the questions that scientific research cannot explain, in shortened form.

In our tale, "The Case of the Dream Traveler," Dr. Joel Stanton enters an unexpected realm when he learns that one of his students has experienced a precognitive dream.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. The gateway is open... let's walk through it together.

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

In parts one and two of "The Case of the Elusive Heart," we explored aspects of the heart's physiology. Today, we will focus on philosophy regarding matters of the heart.

All the science, research, and conjecture can define the heart's literal meaning, but what about understanding the heart from what I call a subjective perspective--that irreducible truth of lived experience, the knowledge that comes from being in a situation, not observing it from the outside.

A new story, the Cartographer of Feeling, will introduce you to two sides of the science/philosophy conversation.

During the final part of the episode, I will speak openly about my own heart and the philosophies I live by, and invite you to reflect on your own.

A commenter said, "The final portion of this podcast made me sit down and truly listen to Ellen's words, spoken gently with transparency. I urge you to listen to her words, over and over if necessary." JC

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

When our heart breaks, is it physiologically breaking? Does our sixth sense have a role in the language of this action? The answers are yes.

In this episode, I will briefly cover the science of the heart and offer a glimpse into a topic that current scientific frameworks can't explain but that profoundly affects both heart and brain physiology.

The million-dollar question: What comes first? The heart or the brain?

Rigorous science gives way to profound mystery. The 'knowings', the inexplicable moments that millions of people experience. These are not dismissible. They're too consistent, too widespread, too deeply woven into human experiences across all cultures and time.

Part two of our story will find Dr. George Harris and Dr. Regina Abbott moving forward with the release of their data.

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.

The heart beats over 100,000 times a day, pumping blood through roughly 60,000 miles of vessels. When we fall in love, feel grief, or experience joy, we don't say, "My brain aches" or "My amygdala swells", we say my heart breaks, soars, fills, or shatters.

How is it that these three-pound mechanical muscles control our emotional language?

Join me for a little science and a little fiction in this three-part series--The Matters of the Heart.

Were the ancient physicians and philosophers ahead of their time, sensing something that research is now confirming: the heart thinks, feels, and remembers. It's not just a metaphor; it's biology becoming poetry.

Support the show

Thank you for enjoying The Gateway Storyteller. Consider adding me to your playlists and downloads. To hear all the episodes, find me at https://thegatewaystoryteller.buzzsprout.com

Like what you hear? Your financial consideration is greatly appreciated, and it helps to keep the research and recording moving forward.

Remember: The gateway is always open. Let's walk through...together.