The Magic of Living Consciousness

This book demystifies the notion of living consciousness and aims to show that, far from being a mere accompaniment to brain functions, living consciousness defines the features of both physical objects and human artifacts. The distinction is between living consciousness, which includes subjective experiences ‘here and now’ (e.g., perceptions, feelings, imagination, and creative thinking) and conforms to the laws of magic, versus objectified consciousness that comprises physical (e.g., computers) and symbolic (e.g., languages and concepts) human artifacts and conforms to the laws of nature and formal logic. The magnificent success of science in the modern world has plunged many scientists into the illusion that magical events are ancient history and exist today only in art and night dreams. The illusion reached its pinnacle in the middle of the 20th century, when nuclear power stations, flights to the Moon, early computers, genetic engineering and other wonders of science made some scientists believe that there is nothing in the world that cannot be explained by science. But there was a price to pay for this scientific optimism – the scientists became blind to their living consciousness. They began looking at the world as if nature and objectified consciousness were the only things that mattered, with living consciousness being viewed as a mundane thing that accompanies brain processes but has no causal powers. This book examines how our living consciousness works, and how our understanding of this work helps in solving key problems of modern life, such as facilitating creativity, protecting from magical manipulation with minds, fighting certain kinds of crime, managing fake reality, preventing misuses in psychotherapy and other psychological practices, comprehending controversial issues in science, and tracing origins of totalitarian media narratives that trigger hatred and wars. Eugene Subbotsky is a Reader Emeritus in Developmental Psychology at the University of Lancaster, UK. He is known internationally for research on children’s moral development, the development of children’s metaphysical reasoning, and the development of consciousness and magical thinking over life span.