The evolution of consciousness

Bjørn Grinde

The
Evolution of
Consciousness
Implications for Mental Health and
Quality of Life


The Evolution of Consciousness


Bjørn Grinde

The Evolution
of Consciousness
Implications for Mental Health
and Quality of Life

123


Bjørn Grinde
Division of Mental and Physical Health
Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Oslo
Norway

This book is a translated and enhanced edition in English language:
The Evolution of Consciousness: Implications for Mental Health and Quality of Life
by Bjørn Grinde

The book was originally published in Norwegian language:
Bevissthet. Forstå hjernen og få et bedre liv by Bjørn Grinde, © 2014 Spartacus forlag. All
Rights Reserved.
This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA.
ISBN 978-3-319-43683-8
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43685-2

ISBN 978-3-319-43685-2

(eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947203
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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Photos and illustrations are from the author unless otherwise stated.
Printed on acid-free paper
This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my Norwegian publisher, Spartacus Forlag, for allowing me to
freely pursue a text in English related to a book I published with them. I also wish
to thank Hendrikje Tuerlings in Springer for believing in the project. Some people
deserve special thanks for taking time to do a critical reading of various versions
of the text. They include Dagfinn Føllesdal, Lowan Stewart, Michel Cabanac, and
my son Steinar Grinde.

v


Contents

1

2

3

4

A Conscious Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Why consciousness is a topic that should occupy the mind of
conscious people. Key concepts are introduced and the phenomenon
briefly described.
Conscious and Unconscious Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Should We Aim for Reason or Happiness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

3
10

The Brain—Your Personal Necktop Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The chapter provides an introduction for those who are unfamiliar
with the inside of their head. I find it helpful to compare brains with
computers.
The Anatomy of the Most Complex Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Neuron Style Talking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Concept of Brain Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Brain Versus Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

The Evolution of Nervous Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The process of evolution gives us the principles required to make
sense of life on Earth. The development of nerve cells was one of the
biggest breakthroughs; yet, in the beginning nothing suggested where
this innovation would lead.
Why Nervous Systems? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Further Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On Bees and Octopuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What Is Intelligent Behaviour? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

Conscious Brains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The first signs of consciousness probably appeared some 300 million

years ago. It was a risky venture, so why did evolution choose this
path? Surprisingly, refinements eventually gave rise to a species with
the capacity to answer the question.
A Common Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

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63

vii


viii

Contents

Hence Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Did It All Start? . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signs of Consciousness in Animals . . .
When Is It Needed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Has It Been a Success? . . . . . . . . . . . .
How We Became What We Are . . . . .
The Human Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I Think, Therefore I Am? . . . . . . . . . .
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The Neurobiological Correlate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Scientists struggle to understand how nerve cells create conscious
experiences, but we have a model. The model suggests which parts
of the brain are involved and what goes on there.
Cortex and Thalamus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Integrated Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What We Can Do Without . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We Learn When Something Goes Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Bigger the Better? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Hardest Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105

States and Disorders of Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
There are many facets to a conscious life. Besides the gradual
transition from full attention to sleep and anaesthesia, several factors
affect what sort of experiences the brain serves you.
Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Anaesthesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Life History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maladies Affecting the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wilfully Altered States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

139

Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Understanding consciousness offers valuable insight into what
happiness is about. The text consequently provides an approach for
improving life.
Hedonia and Eudaimonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Mood Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On or Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mental Disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Darwinian Happiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

159

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106
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159
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177

Environmental Concerns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
The brain is designed to develop in interaction with external stimuli,
which means we are shaped by the environment in which we live. The
question is therefore how to provide conditions that have a positive
effect on the human mind?
Childhood and Life Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182


Contents

ix

The Damage Due to Discords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The Achilles Heel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9

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233

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Mental Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In addition to creating a suitable environment, it is possible to
exercise the brain to the effect of tuning up pleasures and turning
off pains. This requires a proper training routine.
Use Your Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Psychological Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meditative Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Technical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Habits—For Good and Bad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Model of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10 In the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How can we exploit our knowledge of the human brain
in order to further improve quality of life?
The Main Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Next Generation Gym . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Final Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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About the Author

Bjørn Grinde received his education in natural
sciences, psychology, and anthropology from the
University of Oslo, ending with a Dr. Scient.
(1981) and a Dr. Philos. (1984) in biology. He is
presently the chief scientist at the Division of Mental
and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public
Health. Previously, he has served as a scientist and
professor at leading universities in Norway, the USA,
and Japan. A primary focus of his research has been to
understand the process of evolution, particularly how
it has formed the human brain and our capacity to
enjoy life. He has written several books, including
Darwinian Happiness (The Darwin Press, 2002; 2nd Edition, 2012); God—A
Scientific Update (The Darwin Press, 2011); The Biology of Happiness (Springer
Verlag, 2012); and Improving the Human Zoo (The Darwin Press, 2015). Together
with Professor David Sloan Wilson at Binghamton University, NY, he is engaged
in research aimed at practical ways to improve people’s quality of life.

xi


Introduction

With this book, I shall present a model for how the evolutionary process led to
consciousness, as well as what is known about how the brain accomplishes this feat.
Besides offering a description of what human life is about, the text is meant to help
people deal with their brains. That is, you can sway the brain in the direction of
offering more positive experiences and thereby improve your quality of life.
Chapter 1 presents the human brain and discusses why we ought to study this
product of evolution. Chapter 2 describes the anatomy of the brain and how nerve

cells (or neurons) operate. It is useful to have at least some knowledge of this organ
and to master the relevant terminology; but if you should find the chapter heavy
reading, it is possible to grasp the more important aspects of later chapters even
with limited knowledge of the brain. In Chapter 3, I describe evolutionary history—
more specifically, the history of the nervous system. It started some 600 million
years ago and led to some fantastic products, the most interesting being brains with
the capacity for awareness. As suggested in Chapter 4, this innovation occurred
only once on Earth. The human version of a nervous system is arguably the most
advanced product ever created by the process of evolution.
I occasionally use expressions such as “evolution desires” or “the genes want
you to.” I should warn that these are just convenient shorthand for saying something
about what sort of tendencies are embedded in the genes—I do not suggest that the
process of evolution, or the genes, has any willpower.
After trying to describe a scenario for why evolution ended up with a conscious
human brain, I discuss how this piece of tissue generates awareness (Chapter 5).
“How the water of the brain is turned into the wine of consciousness.” Identifying
the neurobiological correlate of consciousness implies indicating which parts of the
brain are involved and what sort of activity is required.
In the following Chapter 6, I discuss the various forms of experiences the brain
is capable of offering. Consciousness is not one particular condition, but an
adventure that takes many forms. Besides, the brain regularly decides to turn it, or
rather you, off.
The insight you will hopefully have acquired by studying these first six chapters
provides the basis for taking steps to improve life—to make it happier. In Chapter 7,
xiii


xiv

Introduction

I present a model for what happiness is about, in Chapter 8, I consider how we may
improve conditions of living in order to enhance quality of life, and in Chapter 9,
I discuss various strategies aimed at training the brain in the direction of providing
more desirable feelings. Readers primarily interested in these practical aspects may
find the former chapters somewhat lengthy. My main ambition in life is to understand what consciousness is about, and I admittedly delve deeper into the subject
than what is really required. It means that if you do find parts of the text difficult, or
wish to skip sections, that should not discourage you from reading the three more
practical-oriented chapters. Similar advice could be given to those primarily interested in the theoretical part of the book. The first six chapters, which describe what
consciousness is about, are independent of the last part.
In the end, I look to the future, trying to picture what lies ahead for human brains
and their owners (Chapter 10).
It seems like most people dislike instruction manuals, they prefer to “plug and
play.” This may work well with the typical computer program, but what if the task
ahead is to operate a human brain? I believe not only that the brain is more complex
than a PC or a smartphone, but it is—at least in some aspects—less intuitive to
handle.
You were not handed an instruction manual at birth. The present text is meant to
compensate for that. Computer games are likely to be more fun if you take the
trouble of learning the rules, and I believe the advantages of taking the trouble to
read the manual are considerably greater when dealing with the mind.
There are many ways to describe reality—including the human brain. Science
has developed several independent traditions, each setting up models and paradigms in an effort to reveal the workings of anything from the mind to the universe.
As to the former, the social sciences and philosophy present a rather different
viewpoint than the natural sciences. There is no obvious answer as to which model
is right or wrong—even if you might think so when listening to discussions
between professionals rooted in various disciplines. A major problem is that each
paradigm has a particular set of technical terms. I write as a biologist. I strongly
believe that the description of consciousness offered by this discipline has considerable merit, but readers with other professional backgrounds may need to make
an effort in order not to misinterpret the conceptual apparatus I use. I shall try to

explain key terms as I proceed.
Scientific references are provided in footnotes. Their number has been limited in
order to retain space for the main text, and the focus has been on recent reviews
rather than original empirical work.


To understand the brain is somewhat like standing outside a house and try to figure out what is
going on behind the walls. There are windows, but some have the curtains drawn, in others you
only see reflections. The question is how to gain relevant insight? (The Schloss Wernigerode,
Germany)


Chapter 1

A Conscious Life

Abstract The first chapter explains why consciousness—in a way—is all you got.
Without the capacity to experience life, there is really nothing in it for you. This is
why you ought to understand this feature of the human brain. In other words, you
are just an “app” that the unconscious part of the brain turns on in the morning and
off at night. Moreover, the unconscious brain is partly responsible for directing your
“film of life”, based on instructions laid down in the genes. The chapter introduces
an evolutionary perspective that helps us understand the human mind, as well as
key concepts related to the study of consciousness.

Is it possible to live without experiencing anything? And would this be a life worth
living? For the majority of Earth’s organisms, the answer is presumably “yes” Trees
lack the device required to have any form of awareness—a nervous system—yet
they stretch toward the sky and appear to thrive. In one way, they are lucky. They
are not at all bothered by this deficit; because without a nervous system, and a

capacity for emotions, it is not possible to be bothered by anything. Still, I do not
envy the trees. I choose to consider the opportunity to take part in the life of my
body as a bonus. Feelings are—after all—often quite pleasant; and by applying
current scientific knowledge, it is possible to make life even better.
Consciousness is the gift of nature that turns you into a participant. We take it for
granted, because it is so easy to employ, and so obviously required for anything to
matter at all. But it is indeed a strange feature; in one way it is all that life is about,
but at the same time it is something vague and indescribable. We can isolate and
dissect a nerve cell, but trying to grasp what an experience—a moment in the film of
life—is actually about, can be compared to a Stone Age person trying to figure out
what air is. The air is there, you breathe in, the birds beat their wings against it, but
you see nothing and sense nothing. Science has solved this mystery. We can explain
pretty much anything worth asking about the Earth’s atmosphere; but is it at all
possible to comprehend our ability to experience life?
The philosopher John Locke was right: my consciousness—it is me.1 Without it,
there is nothing. I can bear the fact that my mind at times is fatigued or distorted; in
1

From Locke’s most famous work: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
B. Grinde, The Evolution of Consciousness,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43685-2_1

1


2

1 A Conscious Life

fact, for shorter periods I survive without consciousness. At night, the unconscious
part of my brain takes charge. Under narcosis doctors ensure that there is enough
activity left in the nervous system to keep my body going; that is, to make sure my
heart pumps and my lungs breathe. Actually, the body can survive without a brain,
or at least without a mind, if it happens to be in a suitable hospital bed equipped
with the necessary connections. But then that body no longer carries me.
In the 19th century, scientists struggled to explain what life is, and how matter—
in the form of simple atoms—gives rise to anything capable of moving or growing.
Today we have comprehensive answers to these questions. In another hundred
years we may have reached equally far as to explaining how the same matter, the
building blocks of our bodies, give rise to cognition. Your body contains some 1028
atoms that act according to the laws of physics. They form the molecules that again
build the cells. Some of these cells, the neurons, work together to generate what you
experience. I believe there is no reason to postulate anything supernatural; we just
do not know the details as to how this happens.
One thing we can be certain about is that consciousness exists. Philosophers
have argued that this is the only thing we can be sure of! Without some form of
cognition, we would be unable to ponder the subject of existence; our capacity to
observe life is based on this property of the brain. It is theoretically possible to
create a virtual world where everything you experience is based on exposing the
brain to artificial stimuli—as in the virtual reality of science fiction. The capacity to
actually experience these stimuli would then be the only true reality left.
Is there anything more exiting in the Universe than trying to find out what this is
all about? And is there any corner of the Universe that is more important to study
than the clump of matter hidden behind your eyes? I have been drawn to the topic
of the human brain, and particularly our capacity for awareness, for as long as I can
remember. It led me to study biology and social sciences; and then on to pursue a
career as an evolutionary biologist—because I believed this approach provides
important insight. Evolution is the framework that allows you to put all the pieces

of the puzzle into their right spot. It opens a window to the human mind.
Unfortunately, the human mind is a double-edged sword in that it offers both
pleasures and pains. (I use “pain” in the broadest sense, all sorts of unpleasant
experiences are included.) The art of living is about how to make the most of this
situation. You ought to learn to control the sword, that is, to act as a director for the
orchestra of neurons. The good news is that this is not an impossible challenge!
You can learn to exploit your brain by utilizing the measure of free will evolution
has bestowed upon us. You can learn to influence your emotional life in a positive
direction. The bad news is that you are up against a formidable challenge. Evolution
did not, for very good reasons, leave your emotional life, or for that matter your
heartbeat, at the jeopardy of your whims. What if you decided to simply stop the
heart, or to turn off the pain of burning flames instead of escaping from a house on
fire? You would avoid agony, but your genes would certainly “cry”. The brain is
designed for sustaining life—not stopping it. Suicide is meant to be difficult.


1 A Conscious Life

3

To master the task of orchestrating your symphony of conscious experiences, it
is important to know something about the players in the ensemble. The mind is as
invisible as air, and considerably more complex and mysterious; but thanks to
science we can sketch out some of its properties.

In the brain, information from various sources joins to produce a unified experience of the world.
(From Plitviča, Croatia)

Conscious and Unconscious Processes
Do you know what you see?

The eyes are there to provide facts about the environment, but they pick up a lot
more information than you realize. The signals leave the eye via the optic nerve and
end up in the primary visual centre in the back of the brain. From there only
selected fragments are passed on to consciousness—that is, to you. The way you
perceive reality is, in other words, a matter of which sensory information the brain
chooses to serve. Of all the light rays hitting the retina, only a certain fraction goes
all the way to form a visual impression. Moreover, the unconscious brain not only
filters the information coming in, it processes and interprets it in a way that means
your impression of what is going on can be quite distorted. Most of us have, for
example, been fooled by magicians to “see” things we never actually saw.


4

1 A Conscious Life

For me the term unconscious covers the processes in the brain that you are
unaware of. These processes are active whether you are awake, asleep, or anesthetized. Some of them deliver content to your conscious experiences, while others
take care of functions you do not need to know about such as the heartbeat. There is
considerable communication going on between the unconscious and conscious
brain. You are therefore theoretically able to influence parts, perhaps most, of what
is going on unconsciously. Sometimes you experience that ideas or information
come to you from “out of nowhere”. For example, at first you fail to recall the name
of a person, but you wish to know. The deeper part of the brain takes the message,
searches the memory files, and then, perhaps ten minutes later, the name pops up in
your mind.
Donald D. Hoffman, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, compares the interface between the conscious and the unconscious with a computer
screen.2 There you find icons that can be used to activate various programs or
functions in the computer. By pushing these icons, you have a measure of control,
but you have no idea as to how the various programs actually execute tasks. And

since you do not know what goes on behind the screen, or in the unconscious brain,
neither are you in a position to verify whether what you perceive has anything to do
with reality.
I use the term subconscious for the frontiers between the conscious and the
unconscious. That is, the two latter terms cover everything that goes on in the brain,
but the borderline between them is somewhat blurry. This blurriness gives rise to
the notion of intuition. Sometimes ideas, or advice as to actions, are brought out
from the unconscious part of the brain in a way that leaves you with the feeling of
not knowing the rationale behind.
Actually there are two common ways to use the term consciousness. One concerns a state of mind or level of arousal, for instance, fully awake as opposed to
drowsiness or deep sleep. The other concerns the particular content of our experiences, as in the sentence, “I am conscious of the smell of this orange”. I shall
primarily use the former meaning.
The word mind roughly corresponds to whatever takes place in your conscious
brain.
The somewhat related term percept is often used to describe the content of our
experiences. It refers to the part of the conscious experience brought on by the
senses. It can mean either an element of a larger picture, or the entire scope of what
the senses offer at a given moment. The former could be the green colour of an
apple, or certain notes from a Beethoven symphony; the latter reflects the complete
visual field with the addition of whatever sounds or smells you are aware of at that
moment. I like to consider “percept” as a more narrow concept than “mind”, in that
the former is restricted to what the senses have to offer.

2

I recommend his TED talk: />it_is?language=en.


Conscious and Unconscious Processes

5

You are equipped with a variety of senses. Besides your eyes, you have systems
for detecting sound, smell, taste and touch. Your perception of reality depends on
what these systems are able to capture, and how the unconscious mind digests the
information. But sensual information is only one out of several sources that deliver
content to your conscious experiences. Other parts of the brain provide completely
different types of contributions; your “inner life” includes thoughts, daydreams and
memories. Last, but far from least, there are nerve circuits that add a particular
quality—they attach feelings. Feelings are either positive or negative, you like or
dislike whatever it is you are up to. The good or bad aspect works like a dressing
that permeates the salad of other input, whether this derives from your senses or
your imagination. It turns your conscious mind in the direction of pleasure or pain,
you are happy or discontent.
To summarize, conscious experiences are based on three types of input: (1) information from the senses; (2) internally generated content such as thoughts and
memories; and (3) feelings. You are the sum of all this.
Your consciousness is unique. Nobody else experiences things the way you do.
Actually, there is one possible exception to this rule: the twins Tatiana and Krista
share at least parts of their lives, in the true sense of sharing! I shall return to these
two girls later in the book because they offer a unique opportunity to understand
what consciousness is about.
It is easy to accept that the sense organs have their limitations. We hear, for
example, only sounds within a certain frequency range; light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, but the eyes capture no more than a small portion of the total
spectrum of waves. Many insects have eyes that perceive UV radiation, but a world
with only UV would mean darkness for us. In addition to these limitations, there are
filters that all information has to pass through in order to reach consciousness, and
there are manipulations of content. All in all it is a bit like how the Chinese
government handles the Internet. In fact, both the Chinese authorities and the
unconscious brain perform this task in strange and mysterious ways.3
I believe I understand the motivation of the Chinese, but why does the brain not

offer you an uncensored and exact version of reality? Is this distortion and censorship really in your interest?
A certain type of mental disorder points towards a possible answer. People
diagnosed with autism struggle to function socially, but some have an almost
supernatural ability to capture and remember every possible detail of what they see.
We call them savants. One theory says that autists have an error in the brain systems
designed to process information. Consciousness becomes so overwhelmed by input
that it fails in other tasks such as interpreting and responding appropriately to

3

As to the Chinese, see Hvistendahl M. Study exposes Chinese censors’ deepest fears. Science 345
(2014) 859–860; as to the brain, continue reading.


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1 A Conscious Life

signals from people.4 Whether this theory is correct or not, we know that awareness
has limited capacity; so you ought to be pleased that the rest of the brain steps in by
administrating and interpreting the flood of information.
Another relevant point is that the genes, roughly speaking, “wish you well”. The
unconscious processing of reality quite often improves your quality of life. For
example, if you embarrass yourself, the brain first looks for someone else to blame;
and if you fail to think of an external cause, the unconscious makes sure you forget
the whole episode. The psychologists refer to these two phenomena as, respectively, displacement and selective memory. In many situations it makes good sense.
The processes that preside over your experiences make life a bit more comfortable
than what you really “deserve”, presumably because the genes are better off if you
do not despair.
On the other hand, the way your brain is constructed may also smash your last

vestiges of happiness. One of the main functions of emotions is to make sure you do
not hurt yourself; you feel physical pain because the genes prefer to be enclosed by
an intact body. Consequently, you avoid hitting your fingers with a hammer, and you
get scared standing on the edge of a cliff—it is the interest of the genes for you to be
careful. They also ensure that you remember bad incidents by associating them with
discomfort, in that way you learn to act cautiously and avoid danger later in life. The
problem is that we are adapted to live in what may be referred to as the Stone Age;
current environment creates quandaries because it is different from what our genes
are tuned to. In the Stone Age, the system handling potentially unpleasant sensations
presumably worked fine, but today people end up in (genetically speaking) unexpected situations. The quarrel with a neighbour, for example, remains unresolved
because you have the option of avoiding each other; in the Stone Age people needed
to cooperate with their tribal comrades. Soldiers find themselves in the firing line
under continuous threat of bullets and bombs, while the danger of meeting a lion will
resolve rapidly—in one way or another. The mental impact formed by the experiences of war can pester a person for life, as they do in people diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress disorder. In these people bad feelings get the upper hand in the
brain. The soldier knows very well that it is best to avoid bullets and bombs, thus the
long-term discomfort associated with the stress disorder seems superfluous.
The unconscious is “well-intentioned” when it comes to handling consciousness
(at least in the sense of helping your genes), but as indicated above it is not
designed to always give priority to your quality of life. Fortunately, your dose of
free will offers an opportunity to take matters in your own hands. Awareness gives
you a bit of leeway. You can to some extent control your mind by choosing what to
focus on and what sort of sensual information to obtain. The better you understand
the workings of the brain, the more options you have.

4

Markram H, Rinaldi T, Markram K. The intense world syndrome—an alternative hypothesis for
autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience 1 (2007) 77–96.

Conscious and Unconscious Processes

7

That said the unconscious brain is certainly not lacking when it comes to
pushing you in various directions. Consciousness did, after all, evolve to help the
unconscious brain—not vice versa. You are, for better and worse, not the sovereign
ruler of either body or brain. Right now you are focusing on this text. If you are
really immersed in the words, you do not see the cat sneaking in from the left; but if
the cat suddenly jumps at you, the unconscious makes sure you jump as well. The
focus is suddenly on the cat. The brain does what it can to make you pay attention
to whatever is potentially important for your genes.
The type of experiences you are guided toward is a matter of what proved useful
for the genes during our evolutionary history. As they say in the secret services,
“information is given on a need-to-know basis”. You, that is your conscious life, are
a compromise between the push of the unconscious and your capacity for
self-determined choices. Sometimes it feels more like a continuous struggle. Thus
no matter how much free will you may think you have, it is useful to note that in the
depths of your brain sits a “zombie-like creature” that is actively engaged in controlling your life.
The process of evolution stands firmly behind all this. It has shaped your genes,
which in turn participate in shaping your brain, which is what creates you. The brain,
and the rest of the body, is a product of the interaction between genes and environment. You can choose to define yourself as what you experience—thoughts, feelings
and sensations; in short, your consciousness—or you can include the rest of the body
in the concept of self. Perhaps most people choose the latter. They look at everything
from toenails to hair locks as part of themselves, but for all practical purposes, it is the
experiences that matter. If you kick a rock, the pain emanates from the toes, but it is
the brain’s ability to create conscious feelings that causes the suffering.
Feelings is a key concept in this text. The three terms—feeling, emotion, and
sensation—are overlapping. All three may imply something good or bad (pleasure

or pain) in combination with some sort of “flavour”; where the flavour can be, for
example, love, friendship, fear, the vision of a rose, or the taste of coffee. I like to
use feeling as the all-encompassing term (although at times I do focus on the
pleasure or pain when using this word). The word emotion focuses on the flavour.
The flavour is meant to guide your behaviour or teach you a lesson (e.g., get to
know that boy, or stay away from the cliff). Sensations are experiences based on
input from the various senses. They typically engage less cognitive processes than
emotions, but tend to involve a positive or negative experience. We sense the smell
of a rose and may, for various reasons, appreciate that sensation. The term sensation
also covers information coming from our internal “senses”, such as those monitoring bodily fluids (thirst) or nutrients (hunger).
Sensations provide guidelines for behaviour. You see an apple and want to pick
it up because you suddenly feel a bit hungry. Thus there is no distinct line between
sensations and emotions. If you spot a girl and want to go to her, we refer to it as
“love”, which is considered an emotion. Biologically speaking both the apple and


8

1 A Conscious Life

the girl serve your genes, they help you survive and procreate, but cultural conventions have installed different terms for various types of emotional instigations.
Emotional states are typically meant to be communicated to others, which means
we can read them in facial and bodily language. We display sadness and anger,
while sensations such as thirst or hunger are not visible (unless they move on to a
level that causes the brain to activate despair).
Particularly in the case of sensations, the “good or bad part” is not always
present—or at least not obvious. For example, if you look at a building, you may
enjoy some aesthetic quality, or you may find the vision trivial. Similarly, the touch
of another person’s hand can be a reasonably neutral event, or it can feel like a
pleasant or unpleasant tickle. In fact, the simple awareness of who is performing the

touch—yourself, your companion, or an adversary—grossly affects the way you
experience the contact. You cannot tickle yourself, and self-caress simply is not the
same as caress supplied by another person.
How much freedom is needed to have free will?
Our genes offer us a luxury version of a brain with amazing features like
consciousness, intelligence and language as standard apps. This package also
includes a solid measure of free will. You cannot fly like a bird, or follow a
scent like a dog, but within the limitations of our species, you—that is your
consciousness—certainly have something to say. The ability to make choices,
as to both physical actions and what the mind is up to, is part of the brain’s
design. As with other mammals, the choices made are admittedly influenced by
urges and emotions initiated in the depths of the unconscious, but you have a
definite capacity to override many of these—if you take time to stop and think.
So do we have such thing as a free will?
The way I see it, we have freedom enough to choose whether the answer
should be “yes” or “no”. The response is, after all, primarily a semantic
choice: How free should the will be before it becomes appropriate to answer
yes? We can control reasonably well how we behave, including whether we
take the advice offered by emotional instigations, but it is more difficult
(albeit not impossible) to control the emotions that pop up. You can choose
not to eat, but it is hard to decide not to be hungry. Your free will is limited to
the realms of consciousness; in the unconscious part of the brain, there is little
freedom. You cannot decide to stop the heart, as processes outside of
awareness regulate the heart muscles; obviously the genes would not “cherish” the idea of such an important function being open to your whims.
Most people believe they are in charge. They like the idea of being king of
their own mind and body. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, they rarely
realize it when feelings (and unconscious triggers) seize command. That sort
of phenomenon is easier to detect in others. You take note of the more or less

Conscious and Unconscious Processes

9

irrational, emotional actions of your friends, but prefer to see your own
beliefs and behaviour as highly rational.
In other words, people tend to listen to the hints inherent in our genetic
constitution and delivered by the unconscious brain. You may still choose to
claim a free will, but the level of freedom is, perhaps, slightly lower than you
think.
A recent argument against a free will is that we can detect brain activity
that statistically correlates with a particular decision before a person reports to
have made that decision.5 However, as will be discussed in Chapter 5, this
observation does not rule out that you have a say.

The unconscious part of the brain not only affects what you experience, but also
when you have the opportunity to participate in life. At night, it turns off the switch,
but next morning you are called upon again.
We do not know why we sleep away perhaps a third of our lives, but one likely
explanation is that it helps save energy. Humans are diurnal animals—unlike a
number of other mammals adapted to be active at night. For our ancestors, there
was consequently not much use in staying up after sunset. Furthermore, both body
and brain need rest to function optimally. One theory is that the unconscious needs
to escape the hustle and bustle of the conscious you in order to “clean up the nerve
paths”, a clean-up that includes updating the memory archive.6 Anyway, conscious
control is not needed when there are no decisions to be made, and may as well be
turned off for the same reason you turn off the lights in the living room when you go
to bed. Bodily functions are cared for anyway. Nevertheless, if in the middle of the
night the unconscious recognizes danger, perhaps a sudden sound, is makes sure
you enter the arena.

The brain is equipped with an innate tendency to steer you and your experiences
toward what is (or was in our Stone Age past) essential for survival. Unfortunately
this leads to a few problems. For one, what was important for our distant ancestors
is not necessarily where the shoe pinches today; and two, the interests of the genes
do not always coincide with what is best for you. You are not designed first and
foremost to be happy, but rather to bring on the genes. Perhaps the main reason for
understanding how the brain works is to obtain a slight leverage when combating
the unconscious “zombies” that guard the mind.

5

Soon CS, Brass M, Heinze HJ, Haynes JD. Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the
human brain. Nature Neuroscience 11 (2008) 543–545.
6
Xie L et al. Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain. Science 342 (2013) 373–377.


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1 A Conscious Life

Consciousness implies a stream of experiences that can be compared to a film or, for the sake of
illustration, a waterfall. The unconscious helps you limit the amount of water so you will not
drown in information (From Plitviča, Croatia)

Should We Aim for Reason or Happiness?
The brain is not constructed with the same logic and elegance as a computer.
Superficially, the evolutionary process seems quite rational; but upon taking a
closer look at its products, it becomes clear that the process has its limitations. On
the other hand, I believe most biologists will agree that the human brain is the most

fantastic product ever to appear on this planet. The point is that even so, our
nervous system is far from an elegantly composed construct. Rather than a
well-designed estate, it has the appearance of an old shack. It can be compared to an
old house that has been repaired, expanded, and adapted to new inhabitants thousands of times. The roof may keep the water out, but the room-plan and plumbing
are far from ideal. Why, for example, did the visual centre end up at the back of the
brain when the eyes are up front? The solution can be compared to the oil companies operating in the North Sea deciding to bring the gas ashore in Africa rather
than in Norway. The process of evolution probably could not hold down a job with
an oil company; its fantastic achievements are here because, unlike the technicians
operating offshore, it has been at the task for close to four billion years. Moreover,


Should We Aim for Reason or Happiness?

11

perhaps somewhat like the oil companies, elegance and optimality is not important
as long as you are ahead of competitors.
Part of the limitations inherent in the evolutionary process has to do with the way
it moves forward. It is not possible to tear down an existing solution, or “house”,
and make a fresh start by erecting a new one based on more recent technology and
needs. Instead it has to advance by making small steps of “restorations”, one at a
time, in the form of random mutations in the genes. Besides, the nervous system
was never designed to be perfect, or logical; all that matters for evolution is to retain
a capacity for survival and procreation. Thus human thinking and behaviour are not
necessarily rational (even when measured according to what benefits the genes).
Our capacity for logic is largely a hard-earned feature requiring a concerted effort.
More often, it is an illusion. For example, a range of studies have shown that when
new information conflicts with existing belief, we struggle to keep former beliefs
intact rather than to revise them. Most people would agree that everybody else at
times are irrational, the hard part is seeing the same tendency in oneself.

On the other hand, if life quality is what you are looking for, and not just an
opportunity to win the world chess championship, there is no obvious reason
always to strive for rationality. In fact, I believe it can be rather irrational to opt for
being rational! Picture yourself as ninety years old and close to dying. Is this the
time for conjuring images of mouldering corpses—or rather for focusing on a life to
come in a suitable heaven? The choice is yours, but I believe the level of happiness
may be best served by going for a vision of some sort of existence after death. The
point being that there are situations in life where logic may turn happiness to
sorrow. Obviously there are also situations where rationality ought to prevail.
For good reasons, evolution equipped the brain with a sophisticated “cosmetics
department”. The brain grooms the information sent towards conscious perception.
The cosmetic feature helps you suppress things you are best served by forgetting,
and believe in things because the belief serves you well, not because it is in any way
accurate. In addition, the unconscious brain initiates an extra “colouring” of
experiences in the form of feelings. Sometimes they are good, at other times disagreeable; sometimes highly distinct, such as the fear evoked by a sudden, sharp
noise in the middle of the night; at other times they are just a vague influence you
hardly notice. But they do not add accuracy to your vision of the world. Actually,
even feelings you do not consciously recognize has the capacity to impact on your
choice of behaviour and most likely on your mood as well.7
It is important to remember that your conception of reality, and thereby your
choices, is based on experiences that have been through processing in the unconscious depths of your brain. There is nothing wrong with this situation—it is the
way evolution has shaped us. The point is that in order to understand the result
(your conscious awareness), and how to impact on it, you ought to recognize the
activity that shapes it. This includes an appreciation of the processes taking place in

7

Tamietto M, de Gelder B. Neural bases of the non-conscious perception of emotional signals.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11 (2010) 697–709.

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1 A Conscious Life

the mysterious, unconscious part of the brain. We tend to believe that consciousness
is all there is, simply because it is all we got. In reality your life reflects only the
surface of an ocean of brain activity.
Our experiences are an amalgam of a complex mixture of components. You do
not necessarily conceive the individual factors because they tend to be integrated
into a unified whole. Seeing the face, hearing the voice, and smelling a person you
love are all mixed in with the emotions you have for this individual. The various
senses, such as sights and sounds, supply their contributions; your personal
thoughts are often incorporated; while feelings constitute the third major type of
element represented.
The purpose of feelings is to guide behaviour in particular directions – their
consequence is for you to either enjoy life or have a hard time.
The happiest man in the world?
Matthieu Ricard has about the same background as me; he is educated in
molecular biology. Some years ago he made newspaper headlines around the
globe as the world’s happiest man! How did he achieve that?
Ricard got his Ph.D. in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner and was considered
a particularly promising biologist. However, at an early stage in his career,
Ricard left the circus of science for a life as a Buddhist monk in Nepal, where
he focused his attention on meditation.
Richard Davidson is a highly acclaimed brain scientist. By means of
electrodes attached to the skull, as well as various forms of brain scans,
Davidson measures activity in discrete brain regions.8 The regions associated
with positive emotions are among his main interests. Buddhists have a long
tradition of using meditative techniques for the purpose of creating a good

life; which is why Davidson chose to enrol some monks—including Ricard—
in his experiments. Ricard came out with the highest score when measuring
activity in parts of the brain assumed to generate positive feelings—thus the
title in happiness.
Neither Davidson nor Ricard claim that the award is deserved. The measurements were performed on a small group of people, and the particular type
of activity tested is, at best, a vague indication of the brain’s capacity to dish
out good feelings. On the other hand, we are talking about serious science, and
there is every reason to believe that the training Buddhist monks go through
actually helps. Happiness is something you can reach for! In Chapter 9, I
discuss how to conduct proper training.
Perhaps one day happiness will be an Olympic event. It is arguably a more
healthy ambition than trying to become the world’s fastest runner, at the very
least it is more likely to improve your quality of life. In the meantime, you
8

Lutz A et al. Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental
practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 101 (2004) 16369–16373.


Should We Aim for Reason or Happiness?

13

may want to buy Ricard’s book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s
Most Important Skill. What he earns goes to humanitarian causes, which is
actually how he found happiness.9

The sum of what goes on in the mind is like a film. You may think of it as the film
of life—a mixture of fiction and documentary; an assortment of feelings, thoughts,
and information from sense organs that roll by on the canvass of consciousness. It is

a single film because you can only have one experience at a time; but then you are
not just a spectator, you also have a key role. The scenes appear to move in a
continuous fashion, but in reality they jump from one image to another. Like in a
real film, the frequency is high enough for you not to notice the shifts; but as you
may have experienced in old-fashioned cinemas, the pictures sometimes “hang”. It
is a rare condition, but the neurologist Oliver Sacks has described patients suffering
from what he calls stroboscopic vision—their visual impressions do not flow
continuously.10
In a way, the film of life is all we have—all that matters anyhow—yet it is a
performance without an actual substrate. At best, fragments are stored for you to
retrieve as memory later in life; but for all practical purposes, the film is only shown
once—it is your life. The good news is that you do participate in directing the show.
Of course, a filmmaker is never omnipotent when it comes to the product, but you
are in a position to influence what sort of film it will be: drama, comedy or tragedy.
Admittedly, the end tends to be tragedy, as the lead character inevitably dies in the
final act. Thus the best you can achieve is to make sure that the remaining show is
worth seeing. In order to do so, you need to know what instruments and options are
at your disposal as a “director”.
The show takes place in the brain. Poets may put their bets on the heart, but as a
biologist, I feel certain that the heart alone has roughly the same potential for
experiences as a potato. True, signals from the rest of the body affect the head, but it
is up there everything is put together into complex scenes. For all practical purposes, the “camera” has its correlate somewhere in our central nervous system. So
to understand our ability to participate in life, it is necessary to study the brain.
Science has relatively detailed knowledge about the functioning of nerve cells
and how they communicate, but unfortunately it is far more difficult to understand
how this activity gives rise to consciousness and cognition. Unlike neurons,
awareness is not something tangible that scientists can grasp and explore using
traditional methods. Religious people like to think of it as a property detached from
the mundane, biochemical processes of life. Some go so far as to imagine a feature
of the universe—a sort of unknown element uniting all there is—something we

9

In his book (2007, Atlantic) Ricard points to the importance of meditating on compassion and
thereby improve ones capacity for empathy.
10
Sacks O. Hallucinations. (2012, Vintage Books).