Dr. Aldrich Chan is a neuropsychologist, psychotherapist and founder of the Center for Neuropsychology and Consciousness. An adjunct professor for the doctoral and master's programmes at Pepperdine University, Aldrich's research on the default mode network, mindfulness and trauma bridges neuroscience with ancient Taoist philosophy. He is the author of the award-winning Reassembling Models of Reality (2021) and his latest, Seven Principles of Nature: How We Strayed and How We Return (2025), which synthesises insights from four core Taoist texts, evolutionary anthropology and contemporary brain science into a practical framework for realigning with our deeper nature. He has been practising meditation with special interests in Daoism and Zen for over a decade.
In this conversation, I sit down with Aldrich to explore his ambitious synthesis of neuropsychology, Taoism and evolutionary mismatch theory. We begin with his SAD theory — separation, alienation and discord — which traces how the default mode network enables our separation from immediate experience, how the agricultural and industrial revolutions deepened our alienation from original conditions of living, and how dualistic belief systems have put us in active discord with the flow of nature. From there, Aldrich walks us through his seven principles of nature — creativity, process, relationship, wholeness, equilibrium, spontaneity and transformation (CPR WEST) — drawing on everything from Jaak Panksepp's affective neuroscience and George Northoff's neuroecology to Winnicott's theory of play and David Sloan Wilson's multi-level selection theory. We discuss how subcortical midline structures may hold the key to our original experience of connectedness, why Jung pointed to the brainstem as the seat of the Self, and how flow states and ego boundary dissolution reveal a deeper layer of consciousness beneath our everyday mental chatter. This is a conversation for anyone interested in what modern brain science and ancient wisdom traditions agree on — and what it might mean to actually live in alignment with nature.
🔗 Links
- Aldrich's website: https://www.drchancnc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draldrichan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drchancnc
- Podcast (CNC Dialogues): https://www.youtube.com/@drchancnc
- Book — Seven Principles of Nature: https://geni.us/7principlesofnature
⏳ Timestamps:
00:00 Intro - Neuropsychology meets Taoism
00:43 The new book: Seven Principles of Nature and the CPR WEST acronym
03:58 The SAD theory: separation, alienation and discord
04:53 The default mode network and how we spend half our day mind wandering
06:29 The triple network: DMN, salience and central executive
10:05 The boat metaphor: sailors, spotlights and fishermen
12:58 Separation as a natural phase: the DMN pulling us from immediacy
15:16 Alienation and evolutionary mismatch theory
17:21 Movement mismatch: the Hadza walk 14,500 steps, we manage 4,500
19:09 Social connection as the most obvious mismatch
21:07 The agricultural revolution's unanticipated consequences
27:44 Discord and dualism: when belief systems contradict nature
31:01 The nature–culture debate: is a McDonald's nugget natural?
36:23 CPR WEST unpacked: creativity, process, relationship, wholeness, equilibrium, spontaneity, transformation
39:14 Creativity and the principle of uncertainty
41:18 Certainty is the death of a question
43:55 Vipassana, curiosity and reframing the stress response
45:07 Two stress pathways: adrenaline, cortisol and the loop that won't close
51:06 Jordan Peterson, Dan Siegel and the universal truth of chaos and order
52:57 Relationship: hyper-scanning, synchronised brain waves and neuroecology
54:03 The selfish gene vs. David Sloan Wilson's multi-level selection
57:59 Ego boundary dissolution: where you end and the rock begins
1:00:58 Subcortical midline structures and our original nature
1:02:04 Jung, Gary Clark and archetypes as brainstem activity
1:05:28 Jung called himself a Taoist
1:06:03 Shadow integration, Neumann and the principle of wholeness
1:08:42 Dynamic equilibrium, eustress and finding your set point
1:12:03 Flow states: jazz pianists and the subcortical midline structures (again)
1:13:52 Spontaneity and play: Winnicott, Panksepp and the rat tickler
1:18:26 Transformation: co-evolving with natural currents
1:19:52 Wrapping up and what Aldrich is working on next
1:22:05 Where to find Aldrich
1:23:14 Guest recommendations: Iain McGilchrist, Mark Solms, Lou Cozolino
