How Your Brain Builds Reality — and What Happens When Awareness Expands

What if reality isn’t something out there, but something your brain builds moment by moment?

In this episode of Integrated Wisdom, Tatiana explores the neuroscience of perception, prediction, and awareness - revealing how our consciousness doesn’t just observe reality, it creates it.

You’ll learn:

• The surprising truth about how your brain constructs your experience of the world
• How awareness acts as the bridge between neural processes and spiritual awakening
• Why expanding consciousness changes not just how you see life, but how life responds to you
• How participating consciously in your human experience is the deepest form of spiritual practice

This episode weaves together insights from neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality to illuminate a profound truth: the purpose of awakening isn’t to escape the human experience — it’s to participate in it fully, with awareness, choice, and love.

Whether you’re a therapist, seeker, or simply curious about how consciousness shapes reality, this conversation will expand your perspective and help you live with deeper agency and meaning.

Deepen your learning:

The Science of Spirituality FREE micro-course - https://www.integratedwisdom.com.au/microcourse

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Contact Tatiana:

You can now send me your comments or questions, to [e-mail] or you can also find me on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/wisdomwithtatiana/

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Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Episode Transcript

Tatiana (00:00):
Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast.

(00:03):
I am your host, Tatiana DaSilva, psychologist, spiritual
educator, and founder of a bodyof work.
Devote to lead others toremembering what we never truly
forgot, that science and spiritwere never separate.
They are each in their own way,expressions of the same sacred

(00:23):
architecture.
This podcast is for the quietrevolutionaries, the therapists,
the seekers, the spirituallydiscerning and scientifically
curious who know that we arebeing called into a new paradigm
for personal and collectivetransformation.

(00:45):
Together we explore what itmeans to live a coherent.
Soul led life drawing frompsychology, neuroscience,
epigenetics, energy medicine,and spiritual remembrance.
These aren't just conversations.
They are transmissions for thoseready to return to what's true,

(01:06):
to what's whole, and to what'squietly waiting beneath it.
Hello and welcome to theIntegrated Wisdom Podcast.
So glad to have you join metoday.
Now, have you ever noticed howthe world looks different when
you're in love or when you'regrieving the same room, same

(01:32):
light, same faces, but somehoweverything feels altered.
That's not just our mood.
It's perception, and it turnsout that your brain isn't seeing
reality.
It's building it every moment.
Today, that's what we'reexploring.
We're looking at what happenswhen awareness begins to outgrow

(01:54):
those constructions.
When the mind's model of theworld starts to dissolve, just
enough to let something largerin.
This is the intersection ofneuroscience and mysticism.
Where the brain's predictivecoding meets awakening.
And so as always, let's beginwith the science.

(02:15):
Modern neuroscience, especiallyresearch around predictive
processing, suggests that yourbrain is less like a camera and
more like a prediction engine.
So rather than passivelyreceiving sensory input from the
environment, it's constantlyguessing what's out there.
It's drawing on our memories,expectations, and prior beliefs

(02:39):
to construct a version ofreality that feels coherent.
And so every sound, every sight,every emotional tone is filtered
through that predictive map.
Anil Seth, a cognitiveneuroscientist at the University
of Sussex.
describes consciousness as acontrolled hallucination, one

(03:03):
that we all just happen to agreeon, and so what you experience
as the world.
Is a synthesis.
It's part sensory data and partbrain generated story, which can
feel very humbling when youthink about it because it means

(03:24):
that what we call reality isreally an interpretation.
Your brain edits forfamiliarity, for survival, for
identity.
And that raises the deeperquestion, what happens when
awareness begins to notice theconstruction itself?

(03:47):
From a cognitive perspective,expansion occurs when the
predictive model loosens.
So when you brain's grip on whatit expects to see starts to
soften, and sometimes thishappens spontaneously, like in
moments of awe, duringexperiences of deep meditation,
in moments of profound love orloss.

(04:11):
Uh, during those experiences,the default mode network, that
region of the brain thatconstructs our sense of self
will quiet down.
And so in those moments,perception becomes more direct
and less filtered.
Research by Judson Brewer andothers shows that when this

(04:32):
self-referential activitydecreases, people report
feelings of unity, connection,and spaciousness.
And so it's not just thatconsciousness expands, it's that
the walls that divide us fallaway.
These invisible and made upideas of division that we're

(04:57):
separate entities fromeverything else around us
dissolve completely.
And so spiritually, this is thebeginning of remembrance, right?
It's the realization that ourawareness is not just trapped
inside our brain or thispredictive model, but it's in
fact what's observing it.

(05:18):
It's what the mystics havealways pointed to when they say,
You are not your thoughts.
You are the awareness in whichthe thoughts arise.
Now, from a neuroscientificview, that's not poetic.
It's accurate, right?
Awareness happens prior tocognition.
The brain builds models withinawareness, not the other way

(05:41):
around.
So now.
This is where the work ofspiritual growth actually
happens.
Not in transcending the brain,but in becoming intimate with
how it constructs our reality.
When awareness expands, itdoesn't erase the model.
It just makes that model moretransparent, more obvious to us.

(06:04):
And so you begin to see how ourthoughts will shape our
emotions, how assumptions filterour perceptions, and how our
identity narrows the field ofpossibility.
And so the goal isn'tnecessarily to stop predicting,
it's just to widen this modeluntil we can include things like
uncertainty, paradox, andwonder.

(06:29):
Clinically, we might call thiscognitive or psychological
flexibility, the ability to holdmultiple frames of reference
without collapse.
But spiritually, it'sessentially awakening, right?
It's living as awareness that'sno longer confined by the map it
made.

(06:50):
It's that, that remembrance thatwe are not our bodies, that
we're not the characters thatwe're playing.
We are the soul essence withinall of this that's, you know,
experiencing, the world throughthis model.
And with that in mind, I want tolead you through an embodiment

(07:13):
practice.
To really turn this from justthe theory into direct
experience.
It's just a short, reflectivepractice that I call the three
fields of perception.
And so you can do this whereveryou are, but obviously ideally
somewhere that there isn't toomuch distraction and you can
safely allow yourself to focuson this for the next minute or

(07:35):
so, and it's totally up to youwhether you have your eyes open
or closed.
But when you're ready and you'recentered into your breath, I'm
going to invite you to bringyour attention first to the
field of thought.
Notice how your mind immediatelybegins to narrate, to analyze,

(07:56):
to label, maybe might go alittle gun shy at first as you
first turn your attention to it,and it might stop thinking.
But if you sit with that for alittle, little while.
Eventually the noise will startand so there's no need to stop
this.
Just see it as that one layerfirst, And then secondly, once

(08:17):
you've got a good grasp of that,I want you to then shift to the
field of sensation.
I invite you to notice anytemperatures that you're aware
of, either in your body or inthe environment around you.
Some cold breezes or maybe somewarm air.

(08:40):
Anything that's coming intocontact with your skin, any
sensations of pressure, I wantyou to feel this pulse within
your body and see it as raw databefore your mind interprets it.
We're not trying to make senseof what the sensation's saying.
We're just becoming aware thatthat sensation exists.

(09:04):
And this is a sensory field.
It's direct, it's immediate,it's alive.
And now I want you to widen evenfurther to the field of
awareness itself.
I invite you to notice the spacein which thoughts and sensations
are happening.

(09:24):
The part of you that can witnessthe thoughts and sensations you
are experiencing taking thatstep back in that field, it,
there is no movement orreaction.
It just is psychologically, wecall this your observing self,
but spiritually it's oftenreferred to as your higher self,

(09:48):
and I invite you to just restthere.
Not identifying with any singleexperience or sensation, but
just sitting within the spaciousknowing that holds it all.
Just really stay here, anchoredfor breath or two.

(10:11):
This is what it means in bothneuroscience and spirituality,
for awareness to expand.
Not to add more content, butrather to recognize the context
in which everything ishappening.
So as you move through your day,I invite you to remember that

(10:31):
your attention is not neutral.
Every time you direct it, you'reshaping the scaffolding of your
reality.
The brain may build itspredictions, but awareness
chooses where to shine thelight.
And whatever you illuminatebegins to grow.

(10:54):
So I encourage you to, every nowand then, check in and ask
yourself.
What am I feeding with myawareness right now?
Because this is where expansionbecomes creation.
Every moment you choose toattend with presence, to beauty,

(11:17):
to breath, to truth, topossibility, you're teaching
your brain a new pattern, onethat reflects the deeper
intelligence of who you trulyare.
That's what's referred to inneuroscience as neuroplasticity,
and in spiritual circles, onemight call that mindfulness

(11:39):
devotion presence.
Both are pointing to the sameliving truth that consciousness
evolves through attention So Iinvite you to notice,
intentionally what you're givingyour attention to.

(12:03):
Notice the things that make youcontract.
Notice what opens you up.
That's how you become the truedriver of your life.
When you find something thatevokes wonder.
Stay there a little longer.

(12:24):
Let your awareness enjoy whatexpands it, because this
ordinary, miraculous act ofparticipating consciously in
your own human life isn'tseparate from your spiritual
path.
It is the path.

(12:45):
This is the purpose of ourexistence.
Every conversation, everysensation, every breath becomes
a site of awakening when youmeet it with the fullness of
awareness.
And so if this conversation hasresonated for you and you'd like

(13:05):
to go a little bit deeper, Iinvite you to check out my Free
Science of Spirituality microcourse.
It's a gentle entry point intothis integration of neuroscience
and the Sacred, and you'll findthe link for the course in the
show notes below.
And so before I go, I just wannaleave you with one last thing.

(13:26):
Remember that the world youexperience is not fixed.
It's being built in every momentthat you are awakened to it.
And that is why I always say youwere never disconnected.
Only waiting to remember.
Until next time, bye.

(13:48):
Thank you for tuning into thisepisode of Integrated Wisdom.
It is my sincere wish that thisepisode may have intrigued and
inspired you to reclaim yourpower and step into becoming
more fully integrated spiritualbeings.
New episodes are published everysecond Wednesday, and I hope
that you'll continue to join usas we dive deeper into what it

(14:08):
means to live an integratedlife.
If this space has stirredsomething in you, I invite you
to subscribe, share it withthose attuned to this path, and
explore the full body [e-mail] au.
You can also find me onInstagram at Wisdom with

(14:30):
Tatiana, where the conversationcontinues.
Until next time, staydiscerning, stay curious, and
let this be your reminder.
You were never disconnected.
Only waiting to remember.