New view on consciousness

A conversation with Annaka Harris about shared perception, experimental science, and why our intuition about consciousness is wrong.

Consciousness seen as fundamental by Annaka Harris

Annaka Harris, author of Conscious and director of Lights On, discusses how she has built a bridge between neuroscience and physics to explore consciousness. The interview covers shared perception, experimental science, and why common intuitions about the mind can mislead science.

She argues that consciousness may be fundamental rather than a byproduct of neural complexity. She describes a view where matter is consciousness at bottom, moving beyond traditional materialist and idealist labels. The discussion also highlights limits in language and math, and the potential of new kinds of conscious experience to teach us something new about reality. Harris cites experiments like a vibrating belt that gives people a sense of magnetic direction as a glimpse into how humans might acquire entirely new perceptual modes and intuitions.

The perspective Harris offers pushes readers to reframe what counts as evidence. It questions whether our scientific tools are too tied to old assumptions about how mind and matter relate. If consciousness is more fundamental, future research could blend neuroscience with physics in unexpected ways and open room for new forms of communication among scientists.

This approach could inspire educators and researchers to teach questions as much as answers. It also invites careful exploration of how far perception can be extended without losing the rigor that science requires. The idea that we might share intuition directly challenges current methods and could reshape how we imagine future discoveries.

Highlights

The journey into consciousness asks us to rethink what evidence is and what reality could be.