Sam Harris thinks deeply about our most fundamental enigma:
It is surely a sign of our intellectual progress that a discussion of consciousness no longer
has to begin with a debate about its existence. To say that consciousness may only seem to exist is to admit its existence in full—for if things seem any way at all, that is consciousness.
Even if I happen to be a brain in a vat at this moment—all my memories are false; all my perceptions are of a world that does not exist—the fact that I am having an experience is indisputable (to me, at least). This is all that is required for me (or any other conscious being) to fully establish the reality of consciousness.
Consciousness is the one thing in this universe that cannot be an illusion.
(Photo: Self-portrait of a crested black macaque)
The Dish 