Does our brain hallucinate our conscious reality?

We’re all hallucinating all the time, including right now. It’s just that when we agree about our hallucinations, we call that reality. – Anil Seth

Neuroscientist Anil Seth delves into the fascinating world of consciousness, perception and the brain’s role in creating our reality.

Seth discusses the complex processes through which our brains generate our conscious experiences, suggesting that what we perceive as reality is essentially a controlled hallucination.

Table of Contents

1. The genesis of consciousness
2. Perception as informed guesswork
3. Self-perception as a controlled hallucination
4. The role of the body in perception
5. Interoception and internal perception
6. The evolutionary role of perception
7. Anesthesia and consciousness
8. The fragility of self-perception
9. The rubber hand illusion
10. The role of interoception in perception
11. Conscious experiences and survival
12. Controlled hallucinations and evolution

The genesis of consciousness

Consciousness is not a by-product of intelligence, but a fundamental property of living organisms.

It arises from the collective activity of billions of neurons in the brain, shaping our perception of the world and our place in it.

Perception as informed guesswork

Our brains engage in a continuous process of informed guesswork, combining sensory signals with prior expectations to create a perception of reality.

This active, constructive process is essentially the brain’s best guess of the cause of these signals.