"What is like to be a human?" is the question that consciousness answers. It represents our experience of us & the world around us:<ul><li>Most people associate consciousness with awareness. However awareness is not required, meaning some animals are experiencing feeling an experience (If an animal has a complex enough brain). We don't know if worms are conscious but we know for sure rocks aren't. </li><li>Types of consciousness live on a spectrum: from the most basic experiences to our complex awareness.</li></ul>

Consciousness is Experience

When you hit a ball with a tennis racket your experiences brings together signals that reached your brain at different times:<ul><li>You were aware of the sound first</li><li>Visual stimuli came second</li><li>The tactile signals came way later in scientific terms. </li></ul>But we experience all of them as one thing. It's what our brain does.

Experiences are binding signals

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to https://betterhelp.com/impact for 10% off your first month. BetterHelp is an online counseling company with th...

philosophy

Philosophy

mindfulness

Mindfulness

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

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What if everything you think you know about yourself is wrong? Most people have the intuition that they have a self separate from their body and brain, and that they can control their experience with conscious will. But what if that isn’t true? Best-selling author Annaka Harris is devoted to challenging our deepest intuitions about the nature of consciousness and the self. On this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu, she discusses experiments on the cutting edge of physics and neuroscience, and explains why those experiments matter. The result is a fascinating conversation that will leave you questioning some of your most cherished, comforting intuitions.

SHOW NOTES:

Consciousness is exactly as mysterious as it seems to be [2:29]
Annaka defines what consciousness is [4:54]
Tom and Annaka discuss the story of Phineas Gage [6:31]
Annaka talks about the difference between consciousness and high level thought [9:14]
There is a basic level of consciousness that doesn’t involve awareness of consciousness [11:35]
Challenging intuitions is a basic element of the scientific method [14:58]
Is there outer evidence of conscious experience? Is consciousness doing anything? [18:46]
Upending comfortable intuitions is eventually a freeing experience [20:57]
Annaka explains how the brain binds disparate signals to make them seem congruent [22:23]
Annaka and Tom discuss how much unconscious brain functioning we take for granted [27:09]
Annaka describes the false sense of self and conscious will [29:53]
We make decisions before we are aware of them [33:41]
Annaka discusses the question of whether or to what extent plants are conscious [35:30]
Trees take care of their own kin, and defend their kin [40:48]
What if consciousness is a field like gravity? [43:39]
Annaka describes the double slit light experiment [46:13]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uva6gBEpfDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9tKncAdlHQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11YDGl3xTv1_yHcaFRf68M6zhbD7AxLpj
Measuring an event can change the past [51:41]
Annaka discusses problems with the views that consciousness emerges from life [54:25]
Annaka shares the impact she wants to have on the world [1:03:06]

QUOTES:

“There’s something jarring about learning that the things that feel most true to you about reality are possibly not structured that way.” [21:29]
“We feel that consciousness is behind our willed actions, when in fact, there is a lot of neuroscience to suggest that it’s actually the reverse. It’s at the end. That all this processing happens, a decision gets made, and we’re kind of the last to know.” [31:54]
“We have no evidence that consciousness is due to complexity.” [1:00:24]

FOLLOW:

WEBSITE: https://annakaharris.com
INSTAGRAM: https://bit.ly/392CIl1 
FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/2GTsk36 
TWITTER: https://bit.ly/2RUoY63 


BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

“Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind”, https://amzn.to/2u7OR9H [2:19]

IMPACT THEORY MERCHANDISE: Check out Impact Theory's Merch Shop: http://bit.ly/ImpactTheoryShop

Welcome to my channel! I'm Tom Bilyeu and my goal with this YouTube channel is to introduce you to the people and ideas that will help you actually execute on your dreams. You will learn how to level up your mindset, develop leadership skills in business and in your personal life, and learn how to live to your full potential. 

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