The History of our Universe in 28 Minutes (Audiobook Chapter 27)

Where do diamonds come from? Where does gold come from? And more importantly...Why are these questions essential to uncovering 'what' consciousness is??

Find out the answers to these questions by listening to Chapter 27 from our audiobook here:

If you really want to know why Chapter 27 is the most pivotal chapter in Consciousness in a Nutshell, let me break it down for you.

The great "mystery of consciousness" can be likened to being like a ginormous jigsaw puzzle with a hundred thousand pieces. It's a big, complicated mess that no one's been able to make sense of.

However, in 2017, I found the first corner piece of the puzzle, and then wrote that answer into something I kept calling "the TED-talk" because honestly, that how I always envisioned it. As a standalone talk capable of walking someone from the birth of our universe to this moment, right here, in about 20 minutes time. And then—once their brain was primed—pitching them the "grand revelation" one often comes to during a transcendent or "mystical-type" experience.

Without giving too much away, there actually is an answer to the question: What is consciousness? It’s just that 3 word question has so many nested sub-questions embedded within it, that if you get any one of them wrong—or if you ask them in the wrong order—you end up with a different answer. These questions (what is the universe; what is life; what is evolution; and what part does the brain play in creating this conscious experience) I argue, are the four “corner pieces” of this puzzle.

Even though Being You: A New Science of Consciousness is easily in a lot of people’s Top 10 books about consciousness, Anil brushes away “why consciousness happens to be part of the universe” on page 6. Specifically, he says:

"The goal of consciousness science should not be – at least not primarily – to explain why consciousness happens to be part of the universe in the first place. Nor should it be to understand how the brain works in all its complexity, while sweeping the mystery of consciousness away under the carpet."

For me, this is a fatal flaw in his argument. And while Being You is filled with many interesting neural correlates to consciousness (or NCCs) it does not contain a theory of consciousness that satisfies all five domains of explanation (physical, mental, environmental, cosmological, and metaphysical).

For someone to really have successful theory, I would argue that they actually need the why. Because the why informs the how and the what. Without the why, you just get a surface-level description about consciousness, and the great, big mystery endures. Again, I love Anil, he’s certainly taught me a lot. But because most books on this subject tend to skimp on the why, and instead focus solely on the brain, they always seem to miss the grander perspective [that brains grew up in environments, and that environments grew up in environments (solar systems)]. Therefore, if you don’t account for the universe’s evolution, you miss the biggest puzzle piece of all, which is:

What is the universe?

Once this question is answered, the great "mystery of consciousness" starts to fade away. And the remaining chapters (Chapter 28-35) are spent backing up the idea.

Prefer to watch Chapter 27 in its original formulation?? Then check out the first time we ever went through the whole "TED talk" idea during our 2023 Keynote for the annual Psychedelx conference. Cued up to start at 18 minutes in, be sure to watch from 18 min. through to minute 45 when we finish the Keynote. Immediately following that is a very worthwhile Q & A, featuring some extremely difficult questions you won't want to miss!

And don't forget to tell us what you think the "corner pieces" to the puzzle of consciousness are in the comments ;)

-James