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New Scientist: Instant Expert
Your Conscious Mind: Unravelling the greatest mystery of the human brain
What is this strange mental world that seems so essential to being human? The conscious mind brings together sensations, perceptions, thoughts and memories to generate the seamless movie of a person's life. It makes us aware of the world around us and our own self. How all this emerges from a kilogram of brain cells is one of the greatest unanswered questions.
In Our Beautiful Minds leading brain scientists and New Scientist take you on a journey through the mind to discover what consciousness really is, and what we can learn when it goes awry. Find out if we will ever build conscious machines, what animal consciousness can tell us about being human and explore the enigma of free will.
224 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2017
48 people are currently reading
389 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 3, 2019
Very interesting state of the science arguements. Though it was not a even as close as a framework for thinking about consciousness, it was non the less interesting as it shows some non-cliche arguements and examples about the subject. I liked it.
September 1, 2022
Does exactly what it promises. It's a simple and straightforward review of current scientific research into consciousness.
It's written by a number of writers so the style varies slightly throughout but it's mainly written in a neutral scientific style so it doesn't jar.
I've never studied neurobiology or consciousness so I found some of the concepts fascinating. The idea that our mind creates the world around us by "choosing" the form of particles? Right, now I'm off to read a beginner's guide to quantum theory...
It's written by a number of writers so the style varies slightly throughout but it's mainly written in a neutral scientific style so it doesn't jar.
I've never studied neurobiology or consciousness so I found some of the concepts fascinating. The idea that our mind creates the world around us by "choosing" the form of particles? Right, now I'm off to read a beginner's guide to quantum theory...
January 28, 2023
The book starts with the hard problem of consciousness, then continues with brain areas involved in consciousness and the paradigms from which it can be studied (f.e. qualia realism vs illusionism). Halfway through and towards the end it addresses topics like loss of consciousness, the unconscious mind and animal consciousness.
I think the layout is pretty clear, but I wish there was another chapter named "The future of consciousness," in which there was an outline of AI projects on consciousness, f.e. It would be a nice chapter to end the book with. It could have given a good overview of the state of consciousness right now.
I know that this is more of an introductory book, but I wish there was a bigger chapter on theories of consciousness, in which there was more detail on the different paradigms. I think that it would suit exactly because you are introducing people to the idea of consciousness. It could have been just like an introductory philosophy book that talks about different schools of philosophy and builds up from there.
I have read many paragraphs (and some books) about consciousness. They usually give a certain vibe of: "consciousness is a mystery, we know more about the physical world than human consciousness." And well, I paraphrased, but these words are also found in this book. This is obviously not a bad thing, but just an observation. Authors seem to really want to emphasize this.
The end of the book has a lot of quotes and thought pieces about consciousness. I thought it was a nice addition. Another nice addition is that the first quarter of the book has a consciousness timeline.
All in all, the information was presented in a clear, unbiased and quick way. The chapters are also very digestible because of their shortness. This is definitely a good book for those who are busy or those who want small chunks of info to ponder about.
I think the layout is pretty clear, but I wish there was another chapter named "The future of consciousness," in which there was an outline of AI projects on consciousness, f.e. It would be a nice chapter to end the book with. It could have given a good overview of the state of consciousness right now.
I know that this is more of an introductory book, but I wish there was a bigger chapter on theories of consciousness, in which there was more detail on the different paradigms. I think that it would suit exactly because you are introducing people to the idea of consciousness. It could have been just like an introductory philosophy book that talks about different schools of philosophy and builds up from there.
I have read many paragraphs (and some books) about consciousness. They usually give a certain vibe of: "consciousness is a mystery, we know more about the physical world than human consciousness." And well, I paraphrased, but these words are also found in this book. This is obviously not a bad thing, but just an observation. Authors seem to really want to emphasize this.
The end of the book has a lot of quotes and thought pieces about consciousness. I thought it was a nice addition. Another nice addition is that the first quarter of the book has a consciousness timeline.
All in all, the information was presented in a clear, unbiased and quick way. The chapters are also very digestible because of their shortness. This is definitely a good book for those who are busy or those who want small chunks of info to ponder about.
May 14, 2025
This was really interesting at first but upon further thought I’d say it didn’t really go past any basic knowledge about neuropsychology and consciousness and was maybe a teensy bit boring because of that. That being said I study psych so maybe I’ve just already read similar stuff before, highly recommend to somebody who wants to learn some general info about our consciousness and what it means to be a human being :)
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October 18, 2021Informative but a bit long, I don't need that many pages defining that the unconscious is interesting before explaining why. Very theoretical in places and doesn't well define the difference between spiritual ideas and science. 6/10
January 9, 2018
The book “Your Conscious Mind” is a series of articles based on “New Scientist”-masterclass on consciousness in 2016. I loved every page of it because its a collection of the magical tools for writing a fiction. I loved it also, because I’m very lazy and I saw an opportunity to read ALL in ONE book: evolutionary biology, cognitive science, brain representation of the body, psychology, physics, cosmology, behavioural neurology…if it doesn’t sounds “awesome” to you and you still consider yourself as a lover of sci-fi – then you are completely fuked up and need a shot! Between whether or not there’s “anybody home”-place! Haha
More read on my blog -> https://raynotbradbury.com/2018/01/09...
More read on my blog -> https://raynotbradbury.com/2018/01/09...
August 18, 2019
Written as a collaborative endeavour by a number of scientists involved in the field, this book provides an interesting review of many aspects of what has become known as “The Hard Problem” of explaining consciousness.
In the opening chapters, the book explores some of the theories that may account for consciousness, such as Illusionism, the Integrated Information Theory and the Global Workspace Theory, and summarises these theories without taking sides in the argument. Of course, “The Hard Problem” is so called for a reason, so needless to say none of the current theories provides a thoroughly convincing explanation of how consciousness arises, and this explains the perpetual disagreements between experts.
After this fairly academic introduction to theories underpinning consciousness, the later chapters were, in my opinion, more engrossing and cover topics that include free will, disorders of consciousness, conscious machines, altered states of consciousness and animal consciousness. Among the diverse mysteries covered are qualia, out-of-body experiences, the reasons we sleep, sleep paralysis, the role of dreams, hypnosis, epilepsy, anaesthesia, near-death experiences and claims of being abducted by aliens. States of consciousness account for all of these phenomena, and others as well, although that shouldn’t be taken to imply that any are fully understood.
There were some intriguing observations in the book, such as people born before the advent of colour television are more likely to dream in black and white. (Nothing is said about how people dreamed prior to films and television coming along.) Another is the hallucinations that can occur during the half-way phase we encounter when going to sleep or when waking up, a state known as hypnagogia. Here it appears that the brain is out of sync, and some parts are going to sleep (or waking up) before others. This can also give rise to sleep paralysis where someone is awake yet cannot move: this might be because the brain is still locked in a REM-state, when the brain stops the body from moving to prevent us acting out our dreams and injuring ourselves.
On the subject of animal consciousness, I was surprised to read that the US Federal Animal Welfare Act excludes mice and rats from its definition of animals, despite these sentient creatures being the ones most commonly used in laboratory experiments. This position seems to be out of kilter with modern day perceptions of medical research.
Overall, this book provides a thought-provoking overview of a diverse range of topics linked to consciousness. Although it is in the New Scientist “Instant Expert” series, I doubt anyone will finish this book and consider themselves as experts: I certainly didn’t, much as I enjoyed reading it. This is not the fault of the book but rather because our current understanding of the subject is too poor to provide satisfactory explanations. Whilst we can understand how individual neurons work, nonetheless in terms of how everything comes together to explain consciousness we are still at the bird’s eye level looking down at the forest and having little knowledge of the trees, let alone the branches and twigs. Consciousness is an example of an emergent phenomenon, meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a consequence of which is that it is currently impossible to reconcile a top-down view with a bottom-up view.
The book has a useful index and also a section at the end entitled “Fifty ideas” which, along with other things, lists some websites where follow-up information can be found, including videos and podcasts.
In the opening chapters, the book explores some of the theories that may account for consciousness, such as Illusionism, the Integrated Information Theory and the Global Workspace Theory, and summarises these theories without taking sides in the argument. Of course, “The Hard Problem” is so called for a reason, so needless to say none of the current theories provides a thoroughly convincing explanation of how consciousness arises, and this explains the perpetual disagreements between experts.
After this fairly academic introduction to theories underpinning consciousness, the later chapters were, in my opinion, more engrossing and cover topics that include free will, disorders of consciousness, conscious machines, altered states of consciousness and animal consciousness. Among the diverse mysteries covered are qualia, out-of-body experiences, the reasons we sleep, sleep paralysis, the role of dreams, hypnosis, epilepsy, anaesthesia, near-death experiences and claims of being abducted by aliens. States of consciousness account for all of these phenomena, and others as well, although that shouldn’t be taken to imply that any are fully understood.
There were some intriguing observations in the book, such as people born before the advent of colour television are more likely to dream in black and white. (Nothing is said about how people dreamed prior to films and television coming along.) Another is the hallucinations that can occur during the half-way phase we encounter when going to sleep or when waking up, a state known as hypnagogia. Here it appears that the brain is out of sync, and some parts are going to sleep (or waking up) before others. This can also give rise to sleep paralysis where someone is awake yet cannot move: this might be because the brain is still locked in a REM-state, when the brain stops the body from moving to prevent us acting out our dreams and injuring ourselves.
On the subject of animal consciousness, I was surprised to read that the US Federal Animal Welfare Act excludes mice and rats from its definition of animals, despite these sentient creatures being the ones most commonly used in laboratory experiments. This position seems to be out of kilter with modern day perceptions of medical research.
Overall, this book provides a thought-provoking overview of a diverse range of topics linked to consciousness. Although it is in the New Scientist “Instant Expert” series, I doubt anyone will finish this book and consider themselves as experts: I certainly didn’t, much as I enjoyed reading it. This is not the fault of the book but rather because our current understanding of the subject is too poor to provide satisfactory explanations. Whilst we can understand how individual neurons work, nonetheless in terms of how everything comes together to explain consciousness we are still at the bird’s eye level looking down at the forest and having little knowledge of the trees, let alone the branches and twigs. Consciousness is an example of an emergent phenomenon, meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a consequence of which is that it is currently impossible to reconcile a top-down view with a bottom-up view.
The book has a useful index and also a section at the end entitled “Fifty ideas” which, along with other things, lists some websites where follow-up information can be found, including videos and podcasts.
September 2, 2023
This was a compilation of chapters with contributions from many different writers from several different disciplines. As usual with such books, it lacked a certain continuity. I would have appreciated an early chapter(s) of the book to define consciousness, with at least a best-we-have-at-this-time from different viewpoints. I did not feel much effort had gone into defining what it was the book was supposed to be about, but depended on a snippet here and a bit there from different authors, as one reads through the book.
The chapters each presented interesting information, but much of it wasn’t related to what I was hoping for when I picked up the book. For instance, much information is presented examining the neuroscience behind coma vs. not-in-coma, sleep vs. awake, dreaming vs. not dreaming. They seemed like chapters that were used as fillers.
The sections focusing on comatose patients seems limited to basic states we recognize as awareness of the external world. It was an interesting section, but I’m interested in the everyday type of consciousness that separates us from lower animals (if it does).
There were more relevant parts. A sidebar titled, “It’s not about you,” discusses the possibility that consciousness evolved to effectively communicate to others our view of the world for the benefit of the group.
The material about out of body experiences was fascinating, even if not an everyday experience.
The very best chapter of all was “Animal Consciousness.” Even if you are not interested in animals, it was the best section for spelling out possibilities of what consciousness really is, clever ways to study consciousness, and where the edges are between them and us regarding consciousness. A strong sense, in this chapter, that consciousness isn’t have/not-have, but rather consciousness exists along a continuum. If you don’t want to read the entire book, do read this excellent chapter.
The chapters each presented interesting information, but much of it wasn’t related to what I was hoping for when I picked up the book. For instance, much information is presented examining the neuroscience behind coma vs. not-in-coma, sleep vs. awake, dreaming vs. not dreaming. They seemed like chapters that were used as fillers.
The sections focusing on comatose patients seems limited to basic states we recognize as awareness of the external world. It was an interesting section, but I’m interested in the everyday type of consciousness that separates us from lower animals (if it does).
There were more relevant parts. A sidebar titled, “It’s not about you,” discusses the possibility that consciousness evolved to effectively communicate to others our view of the world for the benefit of the group.
The material about out of body experiences was fascinating, even if not an everyday experience.
The very best chapter of all was “Animal Consciousness.” Even if you are not interested in animals, it was the best section for spelling out possibilities of what consciousness really is, clever ways to study consciousness, and where the edges are between them and us regarding consciousness. A strong sense, in this chapter, that consciousness isn’t have/not-have, but rather consciousness exists along a continuum. If you don’t want to read the entire book, do read this excellent chapter.
August 6, 2020
The enlightening part of this book was that neuroscientist actually have more questions than answers about how consciousness works in the brain. They know which areas of the brain relate to consciousness in specific circumstance but don't yet understand the underlying mechanisms very well.
The book did confirm many of the ideas that I put forth in my book, Strategy Quest. For example, that complex problem are solved in the unconscious mind. Although, I am not a neuroscientist, my own experience, and probably yours too, tells me that when you sleep on a problem answer can suddenly come to mind during consciousness. Scientist often work to explain phenomena that most people already recognize as likely.
The book did confirm many of the ideas that I put forth in my book, Strategy Quest. For example, that complex problem are solved in the unconscious mind. Although, I am not a neuroscientist, my own experience, and probably yours too, tells me that when you sleep on a problem answer can suddenly come to mind during consciousness. Scientist often work to explain phenomena that most people already recognize as likely.
January 12, 2023
80 percent of the information was more of refreshing your previous knowledge
But still you find the book was interesting because of the presentation.
The chapter "Disorder of consciousness" was enlightening.
How the machines came closer to the consciousness and information about altered state was fantastic.
How Anesthesia works and topics like losing consciousness and animal consciousness are presented at different levels.
Everything about animal consciousness is new..
The book was interesting from the beginning because it's about us and our doubts about our experiencing of consciousness..
a lovely book!
But still you find the book was interesting because of the presentation.
The chapter "Disorder of consciousness" was enlightening.
How the machines came closer to the consciousness and information about altered state was fantastic.
How Anesthesia works and topics like losing consciousness and animal consciousness are presented at different levels.
Everything about animal consciousness is new..
The book was interesting from the beginning because it's about us and our doubts about our experiencing of consciousness..
a lovely book!
February 13, 2025
A series of essays of 10 - 20 pages by various authors / researchers in the field of consciousness: what it means, can it be defined in terms of brain activity, is there a specific spot in the brain for consciousness, etc.
Some interesting viewpoints and at times we get contradictory answers. I think it just points out that there is a lot we still do not know, including just how we should define consciousness,
Some interesting viewpoints and at times we get contradictory answers. I think it just points out that there is a lot we still do not know, including just how we should define consciousness,
October 31, 2023
Great but as an introduction!
For a general audience with little to knowledge regarding philosophy and neurology, this book posses an ideal introduction to consciousness. Nonetheless, if you know a bit about the subject, it can be redundant.
For a general audience with little to knowledge regarding philosophy and neurology, this book posses an ideal introduction to consciousness. Nonetheless, if you know a bit about the subject, it can be redundant.
December 15, 2025
päris hea, suht täpne! mõned asjad lihtsustatud, aga ülevaade tegelt väga hästi kirjutatud. hakkasin lugema ühe miniprojekti pärast hehe vaatab kas annab viidata (pigem ei anna, aga tunnen, et olen intellektuaal)
March 17, 2018
Truly a thorough book on the brain and our consciousness... it is a great read to any science literates
March 26, 2018
Good summary
May 3, 2019
Good audiobook
August 24, 2019
Great introduction to what we know and what we still don’t know about consciousness. Fascinating topic!
November 12, 2020
teaduse argumendid senini tundmatu teadvuse kohta. muutunud teadvuse seisundid annavd ehk kõige rohkem infot. Kus teadvus ikkagi asub? loomulikult jääb see küsimus veel praegu vastuseta.
January 3, 2021
Quite an interesting, high level overview of scientific studies about the brain. A pleasant read.
February 6, 2021
Concise, succinct and accessible language. Tackles complex theories and breaks them down into manageable chunks.
February 28, 2022
Kalau kamu seorang penulis novel, akan banyak dpt ide dari sini !
September 10, 2025
Very interesting and informative.
March 12, 2024
Great compilation of the latest thinking from top researchers in various relevant fields.
May 3, 2019
A good introduction to what we currently know about consciousness; some chapters are much better than others.
May 4, 2023
Well written book on current scientific research on the conscious mind.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews