It’s not exactly psychology; it’s not just neuroscience. It’s certainly not anthropology, although there are similarities. It includes cognitive science but isn’t really limited to it. And it certainly has a lot to do with philosophy. What am I talking about? The new “science of consciousness”, as it is being pursued today by theorists, scientists, and academics around the world.

A couple of weeks ago, all of the maverick researchers of the new field of “consciousness studies”, as it is sometimes called—who by and large operate on the fringes of the conventional, academic world—gathered together under one roof, so to speak, near the University of Arizona, to talk about this curiously intimate yet mysterious subject.

Some people say that consciousness remains as much of a mystery today as it was to our ancient ancestors. What is consciousness? Why are we conscious? What does it really mean to be conscious? Why do we have subjective experience at all? For that matter, do we even have subjective experience? Or is that just a trick of the brain? These are the sorts of questions on offer at this week long conference and this year I had the opportunity to be there in person and see the sights. We’re thinking about doing another issue of What Is Enlightenment? exploring the nature of consciousness (the first one is here) and so I wanted to get up close and personal, so to speak, with the ideas that are driving the field.

Now the first thing that hits you as an editor/journalist/writer is the academic nature of the conference. Many of the presentations just weren’t meant for public consumption...