The Problem With the New Theory of Consciousness

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I think part of the problem is that neuroscience is so new. I just have Paul Bloom on the show talking about kind of the history of psychology. He has a new book called Psych, and you know, we're just avoiding ism and behaviorism and Skinner or whatever. We finally get some good neuroscience. That's pretty recent. Are we always the second of the brain? I think they say, yeah, it's always the day. You know, this is going to be the bit we'll find out.

Shermer and Alderson-Day discuss the psychologist’s journey to understand the phenomenon of sensed-presence: the disturbing feeling that someone or something is there when we are alone. Using contemporary psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and philosophy, Alderson-Day attempts to understand how this experience is possible. Is it a hallucination, a change in the brain, or something else? The journey to understand takes us to meet explorers, mediums, and robots, and step through real, imagined, and virtual worlds.

Ben Alderson-Day is an Associate Professor in Psychology and a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Durham University. A specialist in atypical cognition and mental health, his work spans cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and child development. His new book is Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other.