Introduction

1. Blackmore
2. Troscianko

1. What’s the problem?

1. Descartes
2. James

The hard problem

Am I conscious now?

Defining consciousness

2. What is it like to be…?

1. Chalmers
2. Churchland

The philosopher’s zombie

What is it like to be me now?

Mary the colour scientist

3. The grand illusion

Ramachandran

1. Magic
2. Seeing or blind?

How much am I seeing now?

Filling-in

4. Neuroscience and the correlates of consciousness

Koch

1. Mapping the brain
2. Phantom phenomena

Where is this pain?

The rubber hand illusion

5. The theatre of the mind

1. Dennett
2. Baars

Seeing blue

What is it that is conscious?

Cartesian materialism

6. The unity of consciousness

Tononi

1. Synaesthesia
2. Orwellian and Stalinesque

Is this experience unified?

1. Are you a synaesthete?
2. Split-brain twins
3. The cutaneous rabbit

7. Attention

Graziano

Did I direct my attention?

Meditation

8. Conscious and unconscious

1. Goodale
2. Clark

Sensory substitution

1. Did I do this consciously?
2. Was this decision conscious?

Incubation

9. Agency and free will

Wegner

Volition and timing

Am I doing this?

1. Getting out of bed
2. Libet’s voluntary action

10. Evolution and animal minds

1. Dawkins
2. Grandin

Deception

What is it like to be that animal?

Zoo choice

11. The function of consciousness

Humphrey

1. Four ways of thinking about the evolution of consciousness
2. Memes

1. Am I cons now? Does this have a function?
2. Is this a meme?

The sentience line

12. The evolution of machines

1. Turing
2. Searle
3. Holland

1. Brains and computers compared
2. Humanoid robots and simulations

1. Am I a machine?
2. Is this machine conscious?

1. A Turing test for creativity
2. The Seventh Sally

13. Altered states of consciousness

Metzinger

1. State-specific sciences
2. Is hypnosis an ASC?

Is this my normal state?

Discussing ASCs

14. Reality and imagination

Siegel

The ganzfeld controversy

Living without psi

Telepathy tests

15. Dreaming and beyond

1. Hobson
2. Revonsuo

1. The evolution of dreaming
2. Sleep paralysis

1. Staying awake while falling asleep
2. Becoming lucid
3. What survives?

1. Discussing hypnagogia
2. Inducing lucid dreams

16. Egos, bundles, and theories of self

Hume

1. Ego and bundle theories
2. Selves, clubs, and universities

1. Who is conscious now?
2. Am I the same ‘me’ as a moment ago?

The teletransporter

17. The view from within?

Varela

Do we need a new kind of science?

1. Is there more in my P-consciousness than I can access?
2. Solitude

Positioning the theories

18. Waking up

Harris

1. Koans
2. Pure consciousness

1. What is this?
2. Mindfulness

The headless way