Oxford University Press eBooks
October 26, 2017
Susan Blackmore
112 citations
Consciousness remains a central mystery in science, with debates over how the brain generates subjective experience, personal identity, free will, and whether consciousness itself is an illusion. Advances in brain science involve biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This work clarifies major theories and arguments, covering the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states. It highlights the rapid pace of neuroscience discoveries.
March 13, 2024
Susan Blackmore, Emily T. Troscianko
46 citations
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Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
September 14, 2017
Susan Blackmore
18 citations
Altered states of consciousness (ASCs) include sleep, dreaming, hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, meditation, and states induced by psychoactive drugs. Psychologist Charles Tart defines an ASC as a qualitative alteration in the overall pattern of mental functioning that feels radically different from ordinary consciousness, though this definition raises questions about what constitutes a 'normal' state. In mystical experiences and long-term meditation, people report seeing through the illusions of duality and perceiving the world as it truly is.
Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
September 14, 2017
Susan Blackmore
Consciousness might be an all-or-nothing phenomenon or a continuous variable across species. Various theories of its evolution are examined, along with the question of whether consciousness is an adaptation or a useless by-product. The work concludes that consciousness is an enticing illusion that makes us believe our minds are separate from our bodies.