Nicholas Humphrey

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Selected videos (click title to view) 

TV Programmes

Four Minutes to Midnight: the Bronowski Memorial Lecture 

The Inner Eye:

          Natural Psychologists

         The Ghost in the Machine

         Sentimental Education

        Other People's Dreams

        How like an Angel

Is There Anybody There? 

Placebo: Cracking the Code

The Family that Walks on All Fours


Royal Institution Videos 

The Magic of Consciousness

Why Does the Placebo Effect Work?

 

Lectures, Interviews

 Soul Dust: the Magic of Consciousness.

 Can false beliefs be good for you? The case of placebo medicine.

 Beauty's Child: sexual selection, nature worship and the love of God.

 What shall we tell the children? Religious indoctrination and children's rights.

 The “real” illusion of consciousness. Moscow interview

 The Lure of Death: Suicide and Human Evolution

 “The biological advantage of being awestruck” – JasonSilva

 Blindsight and the evolution of consciousness


Blindsight

Helen; a blind monkey who sees everything


 

 

 



I am a theoretical psychologist based in Cambridge. Over fifty years I have been studying the evolution of intelligence and consciousness. I was the first to demonstrate the existence of "blindsight" after brain damage in monkeys, I did research on mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda, I originated the theory of the "social function of intellect, and I have investigated the evolutionary background of religion, art, healing, death-awareness and suicide. I have been honoured with the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, the Pufendorf Medal and the International Mind and Brain Prize. My most recent books are Seeing Red, and Soul Dust.

C.V.

Biographical sketch