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  • Conscious

  • A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind
  • Written by: Annaka Harris
  • Narrated by: Annaka Harris
  • Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (170 ratings)

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Conscious

Written by: Annaka Harris
Narrated by: Annaka Harris
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Publisher's Summary

2020 Audie Finalist

As concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the self, free will, and felt experience.

What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of being in the world for granted. But the very existence of consciousness raises profound questions: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious? How are we able to think about this? And why should we?

In this wonderfully accessible audiobook, Annaka Harris guides us through the evolving definitions, philosophies, and scientific findings that probe our limited understanding of consciousness. Where does it reside, and what gives rise to it? Could it be an illusion, or a universal property of all matter? As we try to understand consciousness, we must grapple with how to define it and, in the age of artificial intelligence, who or what might possess it.

Conscious offers lively and challenging arguments that alter our ideas about consciousness - allowing us to think freely about it for ourselves, if indeed we can.

©2019 Annaka Harris (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Conscious

Average Customer Ratings
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    3 out of 5 stars

Left me wanting more

This book was too short for me on such an interesting topic. I also found some of the arguments hard to follow. It was nice to have a book on this topic though as it is hard to come by.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Lucid, intriguing, and inspiring

Harris opens our minds to the fundamental mystery of consciousness, and invites us to think more deeply about it than simply it’s mechanics, but why it exists at all. I found myself nervously anticipating what insight or proposition she might raise next, and how, if true, this would change my basic assumptions about experience itself. I believe her intention here was to excite us to consider this fundamental mystery while also balk at those within the scientific community who close the door to the role of theory- and hypothesis-generation in exchange for pure application or experimentation. This is a laudable and worthy goal. My caution to Harris, and indeed to any reader, would be to not equate open-mindedness to the potential explanations of the nature of reality as evidence of their veracity—more work is yet needed.

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Quite conceptually challenging, but equally worth.

Although I had to continually concentrate on what was being said, I am glad that I followed through.

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Enlightening

A great little book into consciousness. I’ve always been of the believer that there was greater consciousness around us by the way plants move and dogs sense the need to comfort. This book gave me a name to the area of study so I can dig deeper into the mystery.

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Intriguing, thought-provoking, and well-written

This is an insightful, well-researched, and though-provoking dive into the mystery of consciousness.
I love that Annaka takes an agnostic stance on consciousness ; she beautifully explores, unpacks and questions different theories and possibilities, and leaves the reader to decide how they want think about consciousness, instead of imposing or enforcing any one idea onto them.

I loved this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys thinking about the mystery of being.

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Diving into the mysteries of the mind

A great dive into the mystery that is conciousness. A clear and understandable explication and exploration of the ideas and theories around what conciousness really is and where it may lay.

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Wonderful!

A well researched and refreshing look at an age old question. The author shook loose some of my previously held certainties

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Fascinating!

great topic. I hope that she writes another as I would love to explore this in more depth.

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Loved it

Left with more questions than answers but I think that’s a good thing! Great short read if you’re interested in the nature and mystery of reality.

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An excellent listen and an excellent voice

Thus book covers all the interesting fundamentals of how the mind works and the things we are blissfully unaware of and take for granted or mistakenly assume! I can’t speak for others but I found it a great book that covers some things I’ve read in the past and connected them to other information and knowledge that I wasn’t aware of. The book is short enough to get through fairly quickly without getting bogged down in the weeds or stalled out on specifics that wouldn’t add enough for the common reader who doesn’t have expert background. Annaka comes across as neutral and open minded and doesn’t necessarily take one side or another of the controversial topics that exist among some of these areas of neurology or psychology of the mind. She instead educates and entertains the reader with the best easiest to comprehend facts and mysteries of the known landscape of our consciousness and maybe even more importantly nudges the reader/listeners attention to the more vastly blind spots of the subject. Personally I can never be reminded enough about the inconsistency with how we humans ‘think’ our minds work and how they actually work. Always good to be aware of these things pertaining to our own lives and to understanding better the ones around us. My first book by Annaka but definitely not my last.

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