As individuals, we feel that we know what consciousness is because we experience it daily. It’s that intimate sense of personal awareness we carry a

Is It Time to Give Up on Consciousness as ‘the Ghost in the Machine’?

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2021-06-19 10:00:07

As individuals, we feel that we know what consciousness is because we experience it daily. It’s that intimate sense of personal awareness we carry around with us, and the accompanying feeling of ownership and control over our thoughts, emotions, and memories.

But science has not yet reached a consensus on the nature of consciousness, which has important implications for our belief in free will and our approach to the study of the human mind.

Beliefs about consciousness can be roughly divided into two camps. There are those who believe consciousness is like a ghost in the machinery of our brains, meriting special attention and study in its own right. And there are those, like us, who challenge this, pointing out that what we call consciousness is just another output generated backstage by our efficient neural machinery.

Over the past 30 years, neuroscientific research has been gradually moving away from the first camp. Using research from cognitive neuropsychology and hypnosis, our recent paper argues in favor of the latter position, even though this seems to undermine the compelling sense of authorship we have over our consciousness.