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Consciousness: From the Brain to the Ineffable Sensation of Being
These pages represent an intellectual and poetic odyssey that explores the very many theories of consciousness.
From a scientific and philosophical point of view, there is no phenomenon as enigmatic as the origin and nature of consciousness. The most widespread concept is that it emanates from the brain. But the question how, from a cluster of neurons, do perceptions come to life and give rise to something non-physical and non-algorithmic like a sensation, an emotion, a thought, or a memory?
To avoid an academic and didactic tone, the author presents the different theories of consciousness through dialogues with historical and contemporary figures. In an initial encounter with dualist theory, the narrator converses with Plato. The Athenian philosopher is, by chance, found in the offices of Google, fascinated by the machines that “can answer all questions.” The dialogue ends in confusion. In a second meeting, she connects with the father of modern dualism, René Descartes, who—by establishing a strict division between brain and mind—leaves the narrator unsatisfied. A later study of Galileo clarifies definitively that, for these philosophers of the past, the relationship between mind and brain is no more than that of a bird with its cage—an untenable position given what we now know from neuroscience and the undeniable body–mind connection.
In subsequent encounters, the author presents the materialist theories (the polar opposite of dualism), through dialogues with figures of the so-called “Four Horsemen of New Atheism.” Forged in the same crucible as scientists like Francis Crick, who declared that “we are nothing but a pack of neurons,” these philosophers and scientists assert that the soul is a myth, an unsupported word, a mere sensation possessed by those with a neocortex. The so-called “physicalists” go so far as to deny the existence of consciousness itself, claiming it is nothing more than a trick of the mind—an epiphenomenon—thus eliminating the possibility of free will.
The narrator then discovers that the new century has brought new materialism has given way to other perspectives, such as Integrated Information Theory, and the panpsychism, which is gaining significant traction in contemporary neuroscience and philosophy.
Articles from various publications, arriving daily in her inbox—thanks, for better or worse, to the “echo chamber” of the digital age that spies on our interests—begin to accumulate. And all seem to converge on the same astonishing that consciousness may indeed be a fundamental force of the universe, like space-time, yet manifesting itself uniquely in every organism.
The setting is often the narrator’s garden, where abundant miniature life prompts further How conscious are animals? Plants? The oldest organisms on the evolutionary chain? A moving encounter with Darwin comes to the narrator’s aid, leading her to conclude that evolution continues.
But today a new question What kind of intelligence is the much-discussed artificial intelligence? Could it become conscious?
In the final chapter, the narrator discovers a parallel or symmetry between the behavior of quantum mechanics and certain tenets of what is known as perennial philosophy, which affirms that there is no “this” and “that”—only a progression, a continuum between materiality and immateriality.
From a scientific and philosophical point of view, there is no phenomenon as enigmatic as the origin and nature of consciousness. The most widespread concept is that it emanates from the brain. But the question how, from a cluster of neurons, do perceptions come to life and give rise to something non-physical and non-algorithmic like a sensation, an emotion, a thought, or a memory?
To avoid an academic and didactic tone, the author presents the different theories of consciousness through dialogues with historical and contemporary figures. In an initial encounter with dualist theory, the narrator converses with Plato. The Athenian philosopher is, by chance, found in the offices of Google, fascinated by the machines that “can answer all questions.” The dialogue ends in confusion. In a second meeting, she connects with the father of modern dualism, René Descartes, who—by establishing a strict division between brain and mind—leaves the narrator unsatisfied. A later study of Galileo clarifies definitively that, for these philosophers of the past, the relationship between mind and brain is no more than that of a bird with its cage—an untenable position given what we now know from neuroscience and the undeniable body–mind connection.
In subsequent encounters, the author presents the materialist theories (the polar opposite of dualism), through dialogues with figures of the so-called “Four Horsemen of New Atheism.” Forged in the same crucible as scientists like Francis Crick, who declared that “we are nothing but a pack of neurons,” these philosophers and scientists assert that the soul is a myth, an unsupported word, a mere sensation possessed by those with a neocortex. The so-called “physicalists” go so far as to deny the existence of consciousness itself, claiming it is nothing more than a trick of the mind—an epiphenomenon—thus eliminating the possibility of free will.
The narrator then discovers that the new century has brought new materialism has given way to other perspectives, such as Integrated Information Theory, and the panpsychism, which is gaining significant traction in contemporary neuroscience and philosophy.
Articles from various publications, arriving daily in her inbox—thanks, for better or worse, to the “echo chamber” of the digital age that spies on our interests—begin to accumulate. And all seem to converge on the same astonishing that consciousness may indeed be a fundamental force of the universe, like space-time, yet manifesting itself uniquely in every organism.
The setting is often the narrator’s garden, where abundant miniature life prompts further How conscious are animals? Plants? The oldest organisms on the evolutionary chain? A moving encounter with Darwin comes to the narrator’s aid, leading her to conclude that evolution continues.
But today a new question What kind of intelligence is the much-discussed artificial intelligence? Could it become conscious?
In the final chapter, the narrator discovers a parallel or symmetry between the behavior of quantum mechanics and certain tenets of what is known as perennial philosophy, which affirms that there is no “this” and “that”—only a progression, a continuum between materiality and immateriality.
165 pages, Paperback
Published August 2, 2025
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