Toward a Science of Consciousness

Scientists and philosophers are focusing more intensely than ever on the nature of
our human experience, resulting in a newly coalescing field of Consciousness Studies that has become
a worldwide and highly interdisciplinary phenomenon.

Toward a Science of
Consciousness marks the first major gathering -- a landmark event -- devoted entirely to
unlocking the mysteries of consciousness. It explores the whole spectrum of approaches from
philosophy of mind and dream research, to neuropsychology, pharmacology, and molecular dynamics, to
neural networks, phenomenological accounts, and even the physics of reality. The aim is to lay a
sound scientific foundation for future research while also reaching consensus on many scattered
areas of inquiry.

Following an overview, fifty-five chapters are divided into ten
sections: philosophy, cognitive science, medicine/pathology, neurology, neural networks, subneural
biology, quantum theory, non-locality in space and time, hierarchical organization, and
phenomenology.

In addition to the editors, who are, respectively, an
anesthesiologist, a psychologist, and an applied mathematician, contributors include such luminaries
as David Chalmers, Michael Conrad, Avshalom Elitzur, Owen Flanagan, David Galin, John Kihlstrom,
Christof Koch, Benjamin Libet, Roger Penrose, Karl Pribram, Gary Schwartz, Petra Stoerig, John
Taylor, Andrew Weil, Fred Wolf, and many others.