Chris Niebauer

Chris Niebauer earned his Ph.D in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Toledo, specializing in left- and right-brain differences. He is the author of The Abstract Mind: How Thinking Became the Source of Suffering—And How to Break Free, the bestselling No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism, and its companion workbook. He taught consciousness, mindfulness, brain lateralization, and artificial intelligence for 22 years as a professor at a Pennsylvania state university.

In this conversation, Chris explores the philosophical foundations of his new book, The Abstract Mind, drawing on William James’s concept of vicious abstractionism and Alfred North Whitehead’s fallacy of misplaced concreteness to examine how thinking itself can become a source of suffering. Building on the insights of No Self, No Problem, he considers the distinction between consciousness and thought, the role of affective neuroscience and embodied development, and why direct experience may offer a path beyond abstraction. Along the way, he reflects on artificial intelligence, contemplative practice, and what it might mean to come home to the immediacy of lived experience.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:03 Chris’s background

00:10:58 Consciousness vs thinking

00:21:42 Thought, memory, abstraction, and reality

00:29:10 Vicious abstraction and the illusion of ownership

00:39:24 The DSM, mental illness, and consciousness

00:48:38 Affective neuroscience and emotion

00:53:11 Trauma, the nervous system, and safety

01:12:19 The richness of direct experience

01:20:32 Redefining our role in the age of AI

01:24:22 Jung, the unconscious, and awareness

01:26:59 A simple practice for everyday life

Producer: Elena McNally

Editor: John Hartmann

(Recorded on July 11, 2026)

New Thinking Allowed Guest Host Leanne Whitney, PhD, is a depth psychologist and transformational coach based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the author of Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali and currently serves as Executive Director of Center for Transformation and Integration. Her website is https://leannewhitney.com/

To learn about Leanne Whitney’s upcoming Transformational Coaching Certification Course with an emphasis in Somatic Integration Therapy, please visit: https://transformationandintegration.com/courses

To order Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali by Leanne Whitney go to: https://amzn.to/2QY3tS2

To order The Abstract Mind: How Thinking Became the Source of Suffering—And How to Break Free by Chris Niebauer go to https://amzn.to/4vIokrU

To order No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism by Chris Niebauer go to: https://amzn.to/4cDPfNt

To order the No Self, No Problem Workbook by Chris Niebauer, click on https://amzn.to/4cDa0IZ

For a short video on How to Get the Most From New Thinking Allowed, go to https://youtu.be/aVbfPFGxv9o

Check out New Thinking Allowed’s AI chatbot. You can create a free account at https://ai.servicespace.org When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. It can provide intelligent answers about the contents of our interviews. It’s almost like having a conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove.

To buy a high-quality, printed version of the New Thinking Allowed Magazine, go to nta-magazine.magcloud.com.

Download and read Jeffrey Mishlove’s Grand Prize essay in the Bigelow Institute competition, Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death. https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/docs/1st.pdf

To order Russell Targ: Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr

To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/4oOUJLn

Published on August 12, 2026