The consciousness theory that connects you to everything

Neuropsychiatrist Iain McGilchrist turns to one of philosophy’s oldest questions: what is consciousness, and where does it come from? He argues the brain doesn’t create consciousness — it shapes it, the way a larynx shapes air into a voice, filtering a larger field of consciousness into something distinctly yours. From there he builds toward panpsychism, the idea that consciousness pervades everything, from single-cell organisms to mountains. Along the way, he uses the image of a whirlpool in a stream to explain how a stable “self” can exist within constant flow, and makes the case that matter itself is simply a phase of consciousness.

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