After the trauma of a high-risk medical procedure, Eric Markowitz discovered a kind of consciousness that lives not in thought — but in presence.

These expert-recommended books try to answer the questions of consciousness, from its fundamental nature to its role in human experience and the natural world.

A conversation about intelligence and consciousness with philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith.

"For many people, the idea that consciousness is a set of tricks is offensive," the late philosopher told Big Think in 2012. "I think that's a prime mistake."

Introducing Big Think's Consciousness Issue.

Humans have always had religion. What does this say about our minds? Reza Aslan PhD, Lisa Miller PhD, and Rob Bell MDiv explain.

Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.

Why some of philosophy’s strangest scenarios are more than mental games.

Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.

"The sense that we are a solid entity, an unchanging entity that exists someplace in our body and takes ownership of our body, and even ownership of our brain rather than being identical to our brain, that is where the illusion lies."

It makes no sense to talk about a “religious life” and a “public life” — there is just life.

Want to study philosophy but skip some of its heavier tomes? These five novels are a great place to start. (Existential despair guaranteed.)

"You can't possibly exaggerate how much better it is to live in a peaceful, orderly society, and to be wealthy, and healthy, and surrounded by people who you love."

"If we did create beings that were more like non-human animals, we ought to treat them much better than we now treat non-human animals."

A paradigm should be elastic enough to accommodate new data and broad enough to explain the world. For Rupert Sheldrake, ours does neither.

"Nobody expects a computer simulation of a hurricane to generate real wind and real rain," writes neuroscientist Anil Seth.

Many, from neuroscientists to philosophers to anesthesiologists, have claimed to understand consciousness. Do physicists? Does anyone?

Locked inside their minds, thousands await a cure. Neuroscientist Daniel Toker is racing to find it.

A look inside Mindstate Design Labs' effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of mind.

What can drugs teach us about consciousness?

"Everything that we care about, everything we experience, everything we know, we know it through our conscious awareness of it."

Delirium is one of the most perplexing deathbed phenomena, exposing the gap between our cultural ideals of dying words and the reality of a disoriented mind.

Could AI develop true intelligence without sentience? Philosopher Jonathan Birch explores the boundaries of artificial and evolved minds.

"The amount of interest is enormous," says anesthesiologist Boris Heifets. "People are dropping in and coming out of the woodwork, trying to understand how to do this."

“Many people get stuck in feeling responsible for their psychological state, and there's a way in which simply being with whatever uncomfortable emotions rather than believing that you are controlling them can be extremely beneficial for psychological wellbeing.”

The biases that shape our understanding of the mind.

The Malling-Hansen writing ball, with its potential and limitations, redefined Nietzsche’s philosophical and creative expression.

MAPS founder Rick Doblin speaks to Big Think about the FDA’s rejection of MDMA therapy and the future of psychedelic treatments.

You're a moody person. You have to be — because understanding moods philosophically can be crucial to your work-life.

"Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions."