What is Consciousness?

New neurocognitive research confirms the theories of the Unconscious from William James and Carl Jung. PREMIUM CONTENT. subscriber access

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William James

“Our normal waking consciousness... is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different... No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.” - William James

William James proposed that an external event triggers a physiological reaction in us, which we then interpret; emotions are then ‘caused’ by our mind’s interpretations of these physiological reactions. Physical sensations ‘feedback’ from our own bodies and tell our minds what emotions we are ‘feeling.’ This feedback comes into consciousness via the brain’s ‘unconscious’ regions.

One theory of consciousness is that it is a memory system used by our unconscious brain to help us flexibly and creatively imagine the future and plan accordingly. Apparently, we don't directly perceive the world, make decisions, or perform actions. Instead, we do these unconsciously and then —about half a second later — consciously remember doing them. So our decisions and actions are actually made unconsciously, then we convince ourselves into the belief that they were consciously made.