The Economist.
How do you feel right now?
What can you see in front of you?
What are you thinking about?
Your experience of the world, both inside and out, is a product of your consciousness.
Without it, you'd experience nothing.
But what is that consciousness?
How does your brain and body create it?
How can physical biological cells come together to make something so immersive and experiential?
People have been asking those questions for a long, long time.
There are 22 formal theories of consciousness.
Another count has 220.
So we haven't made that much progress actually.
We've gotten closer, there's some very interesting theories around, but they all kind of hit this wall.
Michael Pollan is a journalist and author.
For the past six years, he's been grappling with the scientific search for answers on what consciousness means.
His previous books have urged readers to break free from the industrial mass-manufactured food system,
and eat more simply.
You might know his mantra: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
He's also investigated the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs,