An interview on science and consciousness

Preamble: In October 2021, I was contacted by Fatima Mutarelli, Chief Editor of the online newspaper “Il Gattaccio di Via Bastioni,” an initiative born as part of a rehabilitation project for psychiatric patients hosted by the Mental Health Center in Via Bastioni in Salerno, Italy, managed by the guests of the Center themselves, with the aim of proposing interviews and writings having the perspective of the “good tidings.”

Fatima, together with all the participants of this editorial project (Alberto Ingenito, Annamaria Avagliano, Francesco Tonto and Salvatore Criscuolo), asked me if I was available to grant them an interview, in my capacity as a physicist (and consciousness’ researcher), agreeing to answer to questions entirely conceived by the guests of the Center, passionate about the subject, who, although are neither physicists nor mathematicians, nevertheless had the patience to listen to many of my lessons on YouTube.

Given the interest in their publishing project, still in its infancy but undoubtedly with great prospects, and their passion, I accepted with pleasure. So, we made this great interview. The questions I was asked were really stimulating and allowed me to offer some unusual reflections, which I hope will intrigue those who read them, even if ignorant of these subjects.

Below, my English translation of the interview.

Gattaccio: You are a theoretical physicist, dedicated to inner research activities and to the study of consciousness, you are, among other things, a writer, researcher, scientific popularizer, specializing in the field of quantum physics (among other things, you are part of the research group at the University of Brussel, directed by physicist Diederik Aerts); difficult for us to offer a non-trivial presentation, and for this reason, we would like to let you introduce herself. Who is Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi?

Massimiliano: To be honest, I don’t really like definitions, which hardly capture what a person really is. In any case, if I were to characterize myself with an “catch” phrase, I would perhaps say that I am a “theoretical physicist and experimental self-researcher.”

Anyway, yes, I am affiliated with the Center Leo Apostel, of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which is a center of a…