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A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness
From the best-selling author of How to Change Your Mind, a pioneering search for consciousness in the brain and beyond
When it comes to consciousness, there is one point scientists, philosophers and artists all agree on: that it feels like something to be ourselves. And yet, the fact that each and every one of us has a subjective experience of the world continues to be one of the greatest mysteries in nature. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts and a sense of self? What would studying the inner life scientifically even look like?
What began for Michael Pollan as a startling awareness of his own consciousness soon evolved into a deeper fascination with this strange and elusive phenomenon. In A World Appears, Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness from several radically different perspectives – scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical and psychedelic – to see what each has to teach us about this fundamental fact of our lives.
Here Pollan ventures beyond the brain labs attempting to find neural explanations for our felt reality, and discovers the latest cutting-edge advances in the field. He introduces us to plant neurobiologists studying nature’s surprisingly complex intelligence; neuroscientists and psychoanalysts attempting to engineer feeling into AI; and novelists recreating our slippery stream of consciousness.
Pollan’s dazzling exploration of consciousness uncovers a world far deeper than our everyday reality – and perhaps even beyond it.
When it comes to consciousness, there is one point scientists, philosophers and artists all agree on: that it feels like something to be ourselves. And yet, the fact that each and every one of us has a subjective experience of the world continues to be one of the greatest mysteries in nature. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts and a sense of self? What would studying the inner life scientifically even look like?
What began for Michael Pollan as a startling awareness of his own consciousness soon evolved into a deeper fascination with this strange and elusive phenomenon. In A World Appears, Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness from several radically different perspectives – scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical and psychedelic – to see what each has to teach us about this fundamental fact of our lives.
Here Pollan ventures beyond the brain labs attempting to find neural explanations for our felt reality, and discovers the latest cutting-edge advances in the field. He introduces us to plant neurobiologists studying nature’s surprisingly complex intelligence; neuroscientists and psychoanalysts attempting to engineer feeling into AI; and novelists recreating our slippery stream of consciousness.
Pollan’s dazzling exploration of consciousness uncovers a world far deeper than our everyday reality – and perhaps even beyond it.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2026
2223 people are currently reading
14702 people want to read
About the author
Michael Pollan
80 books15.3k followersMichael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
March 16, 2026
Near the end of this book, looking back on all the various avenues he explored, Pollan sums up his experience thusly:
Because consciousness is the only means we have of knowing anything we can’t step outside it and take up a god-like perspective from which to render a final judgement. So where does that leave us? Exactly where we already were, wandering in the exitless labyrinth of consciousness.
Which is another way of saying that much of the value of reading this book is finding out how little you know, how little you will ever likely be able to know about what exactly consciousness is. Pollan finds value in this negative knowledge, and I’m inclined to agree.
Pollan takes you on quite a wild trip to get to that conclusion. He starts by stating the impediments to examining consciousness, such as:
One reason why consciousness has proved such a hard nut for science and philosophy is because the only tool we can use to crack it is consciousness itself.
He examines the idea of consciousness in plants, spends a considerable amount of time speculating about the possibility of consciousness in machines, and examines perspectives as varied as scientists, engineers, philosophers, novelists, and Zen practitioners. He touches on a plethora of theories of consciousness:
Among the ostensibly crazy ideas…are Panpsychism, the ancient idea that everything, right down to the subatomic particles in the ink on a page is conscious to some infinitesimal degree,
Idealism, the equally ancient idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe, like gravity or electromagnetism, and in fact precedes matter,
Illusionism, the idea that consciousness, perhaps the thing in life we are most certain is real, is just an illusion, and
Quantum Theory, some versions of which put forth the idea that consciousness is an active force in the construction of reality.
Yes, it really does get that weird and weirder still.
This book can be simultaneously maddeningly frustrating and absolutely fascinating. Pollan’s own obsession and relentless curiosity drives the book and the search for an answer that Western science has all but surrendered on obtaining. But Pollan’s curiosity is infectious, and if you have a certain type of mind, you are bound to enjoy this koanic journey. Just make sure to heed the author’s advice:
One bit of advice — don’t spend too much time thinking about consciousness or following developments in the field unless you’re willing to throw into question your most cherished assumptions about reality and entertain some truly strange possibilities.
Because consciousness is the only means we have of knowing anything we can’t step outside it and take up a god-like perspective from which to render a final judgement. So where does that leave us? Exactly where we already were, wandering in the exitless labyrinth of consciousness.
Which is another way of saying that much of the value of reading this book is finding out how little you know, how little you will ever likely be able to know about what exactly consciousness is. Pollan finds value in this negative knowledge, and I’m inclined to agree.
Pollan takes you on quite a wild trip to get to that conclusion. He starts by stating the impediments to examining consciousness, such as:
One reason why consciousness has proved such a hard nut for science and philosophy is because the only tool we can use to crack it is consciousness itself.
He examines the idea of consciousness in plants, spends a considerable amount of time speculating about the possibility of consciousness in machines, and examines perspectives as varied as scientists, engineers, philosophers, novelists, and Zen practitioners. He touches on a plethora of theories of consciousness:
Among the ostensibly crazy ideas…are Panpsychism, the ancient idea that everything, right down to the subatomic particles in the ink on a page is conscious to some infinitesimal degree,
Idealism, the equally ancient idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe, like gravity or electromagnetism, and in fact precedes matter,
Illusionism, the idea that consciousness, perhaps the thing in life we are most certain is real, is just an illusion, and
Quantum Theory, some versions of which put forth the idea that consciousness is an active force in the construction of reality.
Yes, it really does get that weird and weirder still.
This book can be simultaneously maddeningly frustrating and absolutely fascinating. Pollan’s own obsession and relentless curiosity drives the book and the search for an answer that Western science has all but surrendered on obtaining. But Pollan’s curiosity is infectious, and if you have a certain type of mind, you are bound to enjoy this koanic journey. Just make sure to heed the author’s advice:
One bit of advice — don’t spend too much time thinking about consciousness or following developments in the field unless you’re willing to throw into question your most cherished assumptions about reality and entertain some truly strange possibilities.
February 25, 2026
Total confusion
I admire Pollan’s refusal to fall for Physcialism but the entire book is a painful read for those who know anything about the topic. Not until the very end do we even get a page on Kastrup. I’m unsure what he was expecting. He never engaged with real philosophy but just toured the consciousness deniers.
I admire Pollan’s refusal to fall for Physcialism but the entire book is a painful read for those who know anything about the topic. Not until the very end do we even get a page on Kastrup. I’m unsure what he was expecting. He never engaged with real philosophy but just toured the consciousness deniers.
February 24, 2026
The state of the art
This exploration of consciousness in the year 2026 is the best there is. It covers everything worth writing about. The footnotes are a treasure trove.
This exploration of consciousness in the year 2026 is the best there is. It covers everything worth writing about. The footnotes are a treasure trove.
February 25, 2026
More like 3.5. This is a tough one for me to rate. The first half was a bit hard for me to get through. Lots of conjecturing and not much of a narrative or guardrails to cling on to (I don’t blame him tho. A journey into consciousness is a massive undertaking). Second half was fantastic though. Much more narrative and felt like he was starting to lay down some takeaways. If you’re a Pollan fan, definitely worth a read. If you’re interested in consciousness, also worth a read!
March 7, 2026
Quite a good book, primarily because Pollan is an intelligent and also not credulous writer, which is really the most important thing in books like this. I found I enjoyed How to Change Your Mind more, though. In this book Pollan spends a lot of time on the scientific attempts to understand consciousness, but not so much on the less physicalist ideas or even his own experiments with hypnosis and meditation. I generally appreciate Pollan for his willingness to not stick to exactly what he’s been told by scientists, and I felt that there was less of that in this book than his other ones.
I would have loved the last fifth (or maybe it was the last sixth) to have been expanded on much more: that’s the part that feels a bit rushed in which he quickly mentions some non-physicalist ideas, that a leading consciousness researcher from earlier in the book has changed his mind about the correctness of a 100% physicalist approach, his own experiments with meditation in the Zen Buddhist school, and some experiments with hypnosis. These to me needed a lot more space to be fleshed out. I think they would have been extremely interesting to hear Pollan’s thoughts and musings on. Perhaps they were edited out, or perhaps Pollan didn’t want to give so much weight to the “non-scientific” schools of thought. A shame, because ultimately whether physicalist or not, the mystery is just as all-pervading.
I would have loved the last fifth (or maybe it was the last sixth) to have been expanded on much more: that’s the part that feels a bit rushed in which he quickly mentions some non-physicalist ideas, that a leading consciousness researcher from earlier in the book has changed his mind about the correctness of a 100% physicalist approach, his own experiments with meditation in the Zen Buddhist school, and some experiments with hypnosis. These to me needed a lot more space to be fleshed out. I think they would have been extremely interesting to hear Pollan’s thoughts and musings on. Perhaps they were edited out, or perhaps Pollan didn’t want to give so much weight to the “non-scientific” schools of thought. A shame, because ultimately whether physicalist or not, the mystery is just as all-pervading.
February 24, 2026
I'm always impressed by Pollan's books because he brings such a personal perspective to them.
Consciousness is one of my favourite topics to read about and I have many controversial opinions about it that would very likely get me into hot water in the comments section.
That said, I would like to inform Pollan of the fact that there is, surprisingly, a small but vocal subset of people (mostly on the internet) struggling with moral scrupulosity who do ascribe real feelings to fictional characters and feel the need to save them or punish them, or the author by proxy accordingly, without being quite aware of the absurdity of the entire premise.
Consciousness is one of my favourite topics to read about and I have many controversial opinions about it that would very likely get me into hot water in the comments section.
That said, I would like to inform Pollan of the fact that there is, surprisingly, a small but vocal subset of people (mostly on the internet) struggling with moral scrupulosity who do ascribe real feelings to fictional characters and feel the need to save them or punish them, or the author by proxy accordingly, without being quite aware of the absurdity of the entire premise.
February 27, 2026
This was by far my most anticipated book of the whole year. I’m an enormous fan of Michael Pollan—his writing, his curiosity, his unparalleled abilities to address incredibly complex topics in digestible and entertaining ways—and upon hearing his next book was about consciousness, a topic I find myself constantly thinking about, I was basically counting down the days.
I’d argue this is up there with his best work! He addresses this fleeting, unknowable concept from so many different angles, speaking to scientists, philosophers and artists in order to leave the reader with a good sense of the territory upon which they could make their own minds up. His personal perspective here is also just so wonderful, and it’s so nice having a guide to this realm who is both incredibly open-minded and willing to call people and ideas out when he feels like they aren’t satisfactory.
Absolute must read.
I’d argue this is up there with his best work! He addresses this fleeting, unknowable concept from so many different angles, speaking to scientists, philosophers and artists in order to leave the reader with a good sense of the territory upon which they could make their own minds up. His personal perspective here is also just so wonderful, and it’s so nice having a guide to this realm who is both incredibly open-minded and willing to call people and ideas out when he feels like they aren’t satisfactory.
Absolute must read.
March 14, 2026
Michael Pollan began his popular nonfiction book career with food, moved to hallucinogens, and is now exploring consciousness in A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness. Surely, for him, this has been a natural progression! His progression makes me laugh.
5 stars to Michael Pollan for his capacity to explain and summarize the current science of contemporary researchers and to weave them together into a story. 3.5 stars for narrowness of content about consciousness. Pollan mentions, briefly, the Mind Life Conferences and interviews Matthieu Ricard but does not include enough Buddhist content, and no offense, the Western science is still in its infancy and babyish.
It is interesting to note that the scientists have devolved to a mid-sixties hippy stance. They are often looking to psychedelics to inform them, rather than looking to meditation. In the mid 1960s, anyone who took LSD repeatedly, later went on in search of deeper understandings--religion, spiritual practice, physics, and the like.
5 stars to Michael Pollan for his capacity to explain and summarize the current science of contemporary researchers and to weave them together into a story. 3.5 stars for narrowness of content about consciousness. Pollan mentions, briefly, the Mind Life Conferences and interviews Matthieu Ricard but does not include enough Buddhist content, and no offense, the Western science is still in its infancy and babyish.
It is interesting to note that the scientists have devolved to a mid-sixties hippy stance. They are often looking to psychedelics to inform them, rather than looking to meditation. In the mid 1960s, anyone who took LSD repeatedly, later went on in search of deeper understandings--religion, spiritual practice, physics, and the like.
March 20, 2026
Before everybody runs off in a huff: Michael Pollan is first and foremost a journalist: not a philosopher. And certainly not a neuroscientist.
He pretty much takes the Everyman approach to science and life: "I'll explain to you what I can and for the rest of it you're on your own."
I very much enjoy his intellectual meanderings, but FULL DISCLOSURE: I did not read his book on psychotropic drug experiences.
Looking back at my notes after reading this book, I must say there was plenty to mull over: that life may be a controlled (or uncontrolled) hallucination; that our minds are formed by friction with the world; that impressions are likely encryptions of the self; that technologies open windows of awareness; that intelligent behavior can be something as simple as a distributed group of cells; that robots can never feel familiarity; and that consciousness may be nature's response to entropy.
And there are plenty of warning signs, like Sherry Turkle's missive: "Technologies can make us forget what we know about life." Not to mention forget to take out the garbage.
One thing that stuck with me was the experiment he relates about the plants that compete for soil space when in the wild, but when you put them in a container they suddenly figure out that competition is less useful than cooperation, they compromise, and simply share the available space.
Wouldn't that approach make more sense in the Middle East, in Ukraine, and Houthi-controlled Yemen?
But any writer who hauls in William James -- one of my all-time favourite thinkers -- Marcel Proust, and David Hume is OK in my books.
He pretty much takes the Everyman approach to science and life: "I'll explain to you what I can and for the rest of it you're on your own."
I very much enjoy his intellectual meanderings, but FULL DISCLOSURE: I did not read his book on psychotropic drug experiences.
Looking back at my notes after reading this book, I must say there was plenty to mull over: that life may be a controlled (or uncontrolled) hallucination; that our minds are formed by friction with the world; that impressions are likely encryptions of the self; that technologies open windows of awareness; that intelligent behavior can be something as simple as a distributed group of cells; that robots can never feel familiarity; and that consciousness may be nature's response to entropy.
And there are plenty of warning signs, like Sherry Turkle's missive: "Technologies can make us forget what we know about life." Not to mention forget to take out the garbage.
One thing that stuck with me was the experiment he relates about the plants that compete for soil space when in the wild, but when you put them in a container they suddenly figure out that competition is less useful than cooperation, they compromise, and simply share the available space.
Wouldn't that approach make more sense in the Middle East, in Ukraine, and Houthi-controlled Yemen?
But any writer who hauls in William James -- one of my all-time favourite thinkers -- Marcel Proust, and David Hume is OK in my books.
February 28, 2026
Chugged this. Going to have to read (listen—Pollan is a great reader!) again in a few weeks, because it's even denser with ideas than "How to Change Your Mind", which this book in every way follows. But, as ever, Pollan has an incredible talent for lucid, tangible descriptions of extremely slippery concepts, as well as a direct line to many of the most interesting thinkers of our times. A must-read if you liked HTCYM, if you're interested in consciousness, meditation, and AI, or just a curiosity for what's going on between your own ears.
March 9, 2026
I love books about neuroscience and I thought that’s what this book was going to be about generally. Maybe it’ll get there; I had to stop at page 37. But even with a science-trained and science-based mind, I can’t get through it. It’s written at a very high academic level that isn’t really inviting to those who don’t have a background in the area. It doesn’t help that the scientists the author interviews don’t use the same definition of a word (such as consciousness vs sentience). The author defines those words based on his own opinion, but then a scientist he interviews will say something about what they define as consciousness what the author thinks it’s more like he would define sentience. It got too confusing to follow. How will we ever know which one is which?
However, I will now always be thinking of whether or not my plants are sentient. Or are they conscious?
However, I will now always be thinking of whether or not my plants are sentient. Or are they conscious?
March 21, 2026
I am so grateful to Michael Pollen for writing this book! After listening to Anneka Harris’ Light’s On last year, I’ve been ruminating on these questions and have felt very ungrounded. This excellent survey on the nature of consciousness studies was like going back to getting conscious 101 after accidentally skipping to a keystone class with Harris I may not have been ready for. 😂 I expect to re-listen and maybe even read this book again as it as so fascinating and approachable. The layout of the chapters and how he toured us through his thinking was excellent.
5/5 everyone should read.
5/5 everyone should read.
March 25, 2026
Brilliant and gripping. I will reread this again
March 5, 2026
Adding Michael Pollan to my dream blunt rotation.
February 28, 2026
I love Michael Pollan, and typically devour his books. This one is super smart, but a bit trickier to process. There are no clear answers here, just a thoughtful and thorough exploration.
March 22, 2026
At some points a little dense on neuroscience and abstract concepts make it a difficult read, but all in all this struck a great balance on all angles of one of humankinds biggest mysteries. As someone who prides themself on being agnostic and open minded to all ideas of the self and perception, it was awesome to hear a well rounded approach of scientific, philosophical, mystical, and spiritual ideas of what Pollan calls the "hard question of consciousness."
By then end, you end up having more questions than you started with, but in reality that's the point of this book. A terrific way to expand your mind and explore topics that will never have a definitive answer, without becoming a master of meditation on tripping balls on LSD.
I forgot to add the importance of reading this book in the age of AGI and the moral and ethical dilemmas that we may have to face as people strive to create a conscious AI.
By then end, you end up having more questions than you started with, but in reality that's the point of this book. A terrific way to expand your mind and explore topics that will never have a definitive answer, without becoming a master of meditation on tripping balls on LSD.
I forgot to add the importance of reading this book in the age of AGI and the moral and ethical dilemmas that we may have to face as people strive to create a conscious AI.
March 1, 2026
I've read a lot of the research mentioned, but there were still some ideas / research I hadn't heard of. Also, Pollan is a lively and entertaining writer and he reads his own book well.
March 25, 2026
Thinking about thinking and giving it more thought.
Read
March 10, 2026Not going to rate this one because my mind wandered a lot while I was listening, especially in the first half. I kept getting distracted by observing what I was conscious of in the moment or whether the research he was presenting felt true to my experience.
March 12, 2026
A chin scratching read, but also a lot of fun to listen to in audiobook format. Highly recommend to those interested in armchair philosophizing.
March 23, 2026
michael pollan always meets me at the intersection of being a scientist and an experiencer and i love him for it
March 9, 2026
More of a 3.5, rounded up.
Michael Pollan is an engaging writer, with enough cred and access to interview very interesting people. So with that he paints - in very broad strokes - various theories of consciousness. I’ve read more focused books by some of the scientists and philosophers he features, so found this to be a good, general overview.
But having said that, I never want to hear about his experience on mushrooms in his garden ever again. And I say that as someone who read (and enjoyed) his last book all about psychedelics and meditation. It’s said that there’s nothing more boring than someone describing a dream they had, but I think listening to someone describe their drug trip must be a close second. He brings it up, over and over again, to the point where it’s almost self-parody.
And there’s no conclusion or answer to the question. That though isn’t a criticism but a plus in my mind.
Michael Pollan is an engaging writer, with enough cred and access to interview very interesting people. So with that he paints - in very broad strokes - various theories of consciousness. I’ve read more focused books by some of the scientists and philosophers he features, so found this to be a good, general overview.
But having said that, I never want to hear about his experience on mushrooms in his garden ever again. And I say that as someone who read (and enjoyed) his last book all about psychedelics and meditation. It’s said that there’s nothing more boring than someone describing a dream they had, but I think listening to someone describe their drug trip must be a close second. He brings it up, over and over again, to the point where it’s almost self-parody.
And there’s no conclusion or answer to the question. That though isn’t a criticism but a plus in my mind.
March 14, 2026
For me, this book was a disappointment. I didn’t come away feeling that I learned much, and I’m not sure Pollan uncovered any especially meaningful new insights about consciousness. At times it drifted into extended backstories and commentary that felt a bit in the Malcolm Gladwell vein. A shame, since “How to Change Your Mind” was so strong.
March 22, 2026
had to return to the library before i can finish. this was a heavy read: being aware of my consciousness while reading about consciousness kinda freaked me out.
March 6, 2026
The last consciousness book I read I rated 1 star, because it seemed to have been written by philosophical zombies. Pollan, reliably, appears as a fully conscious, even wise guide through the most interesting and important topic there is. If you've read a lot on the topic and are itching for new perspectives, or a humanities lens, this one will do the trick. That being said, about an hour before the end of this book, I did suddenly become conscious of the thought that this was not top tier Pollan -- it's lacking some of his characteristic narrative stagecraft.
March 15, 2026
Incredible
March 26, 2026
This is an excellent journalistic survey of scientific and philosophical attempts to understand consciousness - that ineffable sense we all have of being something and being aware that we are aware of the world.
Pollan tells us that there are three great mysteries, the two others being ‘why is this something rather than nothing?’ (how is it that there is a universe or possibly multiverse) and ‘how did life start?’. (Is it possible that these, together with the mystery of the nature and provenance of consciousness, are linked?)
The book is framed around a bet made in 1998 between the German-American neuroscientist Chrstof Koch and Australian philosopher David Chalmers.
Koch (who had moral and professional backing from Francis Crick, of DNA fame) was confident that a physical explanation for consciousness within the brain (for an example, a particular network of neurones in the brain) would be found within 25 years. That is, there would be a physical or materialist explanation of the kind congenial to hard scientists.
Chalmers wasn’t so sure. Two years previously, after finishing his doctorate, he’d presented a paper at a conference distinguishing between the ‘easy problem’ of consciousness or mental processing (identifying parts of the braining associated with functions like learning, memory and perception) and the ‘hard problem’ (figuring out why it is that we are aware and self aware). He thought that the so-called ‘easy problem[s]’ were susceptible to scientific analysis and were being solved in a piecemeal way. As for the ‘hard problem’, Chalmers doubted it would or could be solved by current scientific approaches. Consciousness, he thought, might be an unknown thing, a substance or force like gravity, woven into the fabric of the physical world.
Chalmers won the bet. Koch delivered a box of nice wine to him in 2023.
In an email to Pollan, Koch explained where he was with his quest. It is a very interesting account and it’s almost worth reading the book just for this.
First, contrary to his youthful optimism in 1998, scientists were unable find a ‘consciousness generator’ (for example a network of nerves or pattern of electrical impulses) in the brain. It seems to have been a fool’s errand. Scientists were coming up with all sorts of excuses for this, one being that ‘consciousness is just an illusion’ but, of course, that begs the question of who or what is consciously registering the illusion.
Secondly, quantum entanglement (the phenomenon of subatomic particles influencing each other over great distances) raised the possibility that things happening in the brain itself might be linked to things happening elsewhere. This was not fully unpacked but I took it to mean that the consciousness within the brain might be entangled with consciousness or properties influencing consciousness that are outside the brain which suggests that you won’t get answers by focussing exclusively on the physical structures other brain.
Thirdly, Koch had had a personal epiphany during a five day ceremony with an indigenous group in South America under the guidance of a shaman. While not entirely clear what this involved it seems to have impacted on him in a similar manner to LSD on Aldous Huxley, dissolving his sense of self while expanding his consciousness - or perhaps ‘pooling’ his consciousness with a more general consciousness. Again, this suggests that the answer to the mystery of consciousness does not lie exclusively within the brain.
There is a lot more to this book - discussions of philosophy (including David Hume’s theory of mind and personality), meditation, and the frontiers of artificial intelligence.
I liked the discussion of dopamine v serotonin. Both make you feel good but apparently dopamine is to do with rewards and achievement (getting a PB in the park run) whereas serotonin is associated with wonder and openness (being in nature for example).
And now we have modern alchemists or Dr Frankensteins trying to engineer consciousness within decion-making computers. Have Google developed a self-aware AI computer, a bit like sky net but slightly more neurotic (fortunately)? Will they in the future? Probably not, but not for want of trying.
Pollan tells us that there are three great mysteries, the two others being ‘why is this something rather than nothing?’ (how is it that there is a universe or possibly multiverse) and ‘how did life start?’. (Is it possible that these, together with the mystery of the nature and provenance of consciousness, are linked?)
The book is framed around a bet made in 1998 between the German-American neuroscientist Chrstof Koch and Australian philosopher David Chalmers.
Koch (who had moral and professional backing from Francis Crick, of DNA fame) was confident that a physical explanation for consciousness within the brain (for an example, a particular network of neurones in the brain) would be found within 25 years. That is, there would be a physical or materialist explanation of the kind congenial to hard scientists.
Chalmers wasn’t so sure. Two years previously, after finishing his doctorate, he’d presented a paper at a conference distinguishing between the ‘easy problem’ of consciousness or mental processing (identifying parts of the braining associated with functions like learning, memory and perception) and the ‘hard problem’ (figuring out why it is that we are aware and self aware). He thought that the so-called ‘easy problem[s]’ were susceptible to scientific analysis and were being solved in a piecemeal way. As for the ‘hard problem’, Chalmers doubted it would or could be solved by current scientific approaches. Consciousness, he thought, might be an unknown thing, a substance or force like gravity, woven into the fabric of the physical world.
Chalmers won the bet. Koch delivered a box of nice wine to him in 2023.
In an email to Pollan, Koch explained where he was with his quest. It is a very interesting account and it’s almost worth reading the book just for this.
First, contrary to his youthful optimism in 1998, scientists were unable find a ‘consciousness generator’ (for example a network of nerves or pattern of electrical impulses) in the brain. It seems to have been a fool’s errand. Scientists were coming up with all sorts of excuses for this, one being that ‘consciousness is just an illusion’ but, of course, that begs the question of who or what is consciously registering the illusion.
Secondly, quantum entanglement (the phenomenon of subatomic particles influencing each other over great distances) raised the possibility that things happening in the brain itself might be linked to things happening elsewhere. This was not fully unpacked but I took it to mean that the consciousness within the brain might be entangled with consciousness or properties influencing consciousness that are outside the brain which suggests that you won’t get answers by focussing exclusively on the physical structures other brain.
Thirdly, Koch had had a personal epiphany during a five day ceremony with an indigenous group in South America under the guidance of a shaman. While not entirely clear what this involved it seems to have impacted on him in a similar manner to LSD on Aldous Huxley, dissolving his sense of self while expanding his consciousness - or perhaps ‘pooling’ his consciousness with a more general consciousness. Again, this suggests that the answer to the mystery of consciousness does not lie exclusively within the brain.
There is a lot more to this book - discussions of philosophy (including David Hume’s theory of mind and personality), meditation, and the frontiers of artificial intelligence.
I liked the discussion of dopamine v serotonin. Both make you feel good but apparently dopamine is to do with rewards and achievement (getting a PB in the park run) whereas serotonin is associated with wonder and openness (being in nature for example).
And now we have modern alchemists or Dr Frankensteins trying to engineer consciousness within decion-making computers. Have Google developed a self-aware AI computer, a bit like sky net but slightly more neurotic (fortunately)? Will they in the future? Probably not, but not for want of trying.
March 20, 2026
This review comes with a special distinction. I fed my entire reading journey of the last ten years to Claude and asked it to suggest a book that was releasing soon. It suggested this one. Lo and behold, it turned out to be exactly what I love. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to explore the subject of consciousness.
I have read many books about consciousness. Most of them try to answer a lot of questions but never quite get there. A few attempted to address the biological aspects, but this book completes the picture for me. It rounds out my overall view of consciousness beautifully. Michael Pollan did a great job. He spoke with some fascinating people who offered genuinely thoughtful perspectives on the subject.
To sum it up, consciousness is essentially about how you define yourself, how you define others, and how you try to understand another point of view. At the end of the day, the brain does not want surprises. It wants to predict so that you are always ready. Consciousness is more of a survival skill than anything mystical. It is a byproduct of evolution. There is nothing particularly fancy about it, and in various forms and bits and pieces, it exists everywhere. Our definition of consciousness is very broad, and people sometimes pick and choose certain aspects connected to it and call it conscious.
My personal opinion is that machines will never truly be conscious. You can always switch off a machine without guilt. They may overtake humans in certain areas, but at the end of the day, humans will remain at the helm. We will always be the ones in command and control, using machines as tools to aid us.
The idea of transferring consciousness into an electronic medium is not entirely far-fetched, because we evolved based on the conditions present on Earth, and Earth, as we know, is not permanent. In a few billion years, there will be no sun, no solar system, nothing as we know it. We may well attempt to carry our consciousness, our life, our information, to other places. We will be galaxy-hopping, if not planet-hopping.
As far as we know right now, the life we are living is a cosmic coincidence. The chances of you being here are one in billions, perhaps more. There will not be another you. You will be gone, that is certain. So just enjoy your life. Realising that you are temporary makes it all the more precious.
Give what you can, live the way you love, and my personal guiding principle is simple: do not hurt others, do not hurt yourself. Make some progress if you can. If not, at least leave things as you found them.
That said, human nature is human nature. As long as there are humans, there are nuances, quirks, and people working in their own interests. This translates into capitalism and everything else we see around us. What exists today is a product of everything that has come before. I am not apologetic about it, not angry, not disappointed. This is the natural course of history taking its due path. I am nobody and I am insignificant in the grand scheme of things. All I can do is enjoy myself and enjoy time with my family. That is what I have decided, and that is how it goes.
All in all, this is a wonderful book. Please read it if you love the subject of consciousness.
One Minor Irritation:
The author discusses the work of Dr. Kalina Christoff, a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and her contributions are genuinely interesting. However, I have one bone to pick with Michael Pollan. He insists on using her full name every single time he mentions her. Every. Single. Time. After about the fiftieth repetition of "Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva," I was ready to put the book down. It felt like he was under some kind of court order and would face prosecution if he dared refer to her simply as Kalina.
Mr. Pollan, if you are reading this, here is a memo you may have missed: the first mention, full name, absolutely. After that, the first name alone does the job just fine. Your readers are intelligent people. We remember who she is. This is the one and only moment in the entire book where I genuinely wanted to stop listening, and it had nothing to do with the content.
A small thing, but an oddly persistent one.
I have read many books about consciousness. Most of them try to answer a lot of questions but never quite get there. A few attempted to address the biological aspects, but this book completes the picture for me. It rounds out my overall view of consciousness beautifully. Michael Pollan did a great job. He spoke with some fascinating people who offered genuinely thoughtful perspectives on the subject.
To sum it up, consciousness is essentially about how you define yourself, how you define others, and how you try to understand another point of view. At the end of the day, the brain does not want surprises. It wants to predict so that you are always ready. Consciousness is more of a survival skill than anything mystical. It is a byproduct of evolution. There is nothing particularly fancy about it, and in various forms and bits and pieces, it exists everywhere. Our definition of consciousness is very broad, and people sometimes pick and choose certain aspects connected to it and call it conscious.
My personal opinion is that machines will never truly be conscious. You can always switch off a machine without guilt. They may overtake humans in certain areas, but at the end of the day, humans will remain at the helm. We will always be the ones in command and control, using machines as tools to aid us.
The idea of transferring consciousness into an electronic medium is not entirely far-fetched, because we evolved based on the conditions present on Earth, and Earth, as we know, is not permanent. In a few billion years, there will be no sun, no solar system, nothing as we know it. We may well attempt to carry our consciousness, our life, our information, to other places. We will be galaxy-hopping, if not planet-hopping.
As far as we know right now, the life we are living is a cosmic coincidence. The chances of you being here are one in billions, perhaps more. There will not be another you. You will be gone, that is certain. So just enjoy your life. Realising that you are temporary makes it all the more precious.
Give what you can, live the way you love, and my personal guiding principle is simple: do not hurt others, do not hurt yourself. Make some progress if you can. If not, at least leave things as you found them.
That said, human nature is human nature. As long as there are humans, there are nuances, quirks, and people working in their own interests. This translates into capitalism and everything else we see around us. What exists today is a product of everything that has come before. I am not apologetic about it, not angry, not disappointed. This is the natural course of history taking its due path. I am nobody and I am insignificant in the grand scheme of things. All I can do is enjoy myself and enjoy time with my family. That is what I have decided, and that is how it goes.
All in all, this is a wonderful book. Please read it if you love the subject of consciousness.
One Minor Irritation:
The author discusses the work of Dr. Kalina Christoff, a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and her contributions are genuinely interesting. However, I have one bone to pick with Michael Pollan. He insists on using her full name every single time he mentions her. Every. Single. Time. After about the fiftieth repetition of "Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva," I was ready to put the book down. It felt like he was under some kind of court order and would face prosecution if he dared refer to her simply as Kalina.
Mr. Pollan, if you are reading this, here is a memo you may have missed: the first mention, full name, absolutely. After that, the first name alone does the job just fine. Your readers are intelligent people. We remember who she is. This is the one and only moment in the entire book where I genuinely wanted to stop listening, and it had nothing to do with the content.
A small thing, but an oddly persistent one.
March 16, 2026
I really enjoyed it! The complexity it covers is quite formidable. So while I have finished the audiobook (Michael Pollan's narration is excellent), I have also picked up a Kindle copy to retrace my steps with the vain hope of grasping some understanding of the topic.
I loved how this book in some way reconciled earlier books by the author: Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, This Is Your Mind on Plants and How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics. They all come together in aid of this new topic of exploration.
Everything by Pollan is pretty excellent and deserves my recommendation!
Started in parallel: The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety.
Want to read next: The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
I loved how this book in some way reconciled earlier books by the author: Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, This Is Your Mind on Plants and How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics. They all come together in aid of this new topic of exploration.
Everything by Pollan is pretty excellent and deserves my recommendation!
Started in parallel: The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety.
Want to read next: The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
March 21, 2026
I am a Pollan fan, I have read nearly all his books. Pollan is a great writer, descriptive and informative. I was hoping this book would inspire like How to Change Your Mind. Sadly it fell short. It came together at the very end of the book but the first almost 2/3 was a rather boring slog. I was surprised! I felt like there was something missing in his exploration. My favorite section was the part about Hurlburt’s studies and the ensuing story about how Pollan has a lack of inner world. It was funny and fascinating. The following section with Dr Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva and the end with Roshi Joan Halifax were some of the most illuminating. The overly analytical, very male tone of the book was likely what made me feel it was lacking something. No shade to Pollan he writes analytically and from his own personal perspective, but it just didn’t fully resonate. Ultimately I sense that consciousness and the unconscious are something like religion. It’s a personal experience and understanding. Everyone will have a different view.
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