The Secrets of Consciousness

By: Scientific American

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Consciousness is more than mere awareness. It’s how we experience the world, how we turn input into experience. Once the province of philosophy, religion, or perhaps fantasy, neuroscientists have added a scientific voice to the discussion, using available medical technology to explore just what separates so-called “mind” from brain. In this audiobook, we look at what science has to say about one of humankind’s most fundamental, existential mysteries.  

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2017 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. Scientific American is a registered trademark of Nature America, Inc. (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Awesome content, heavily mispronounced

This was a comprehensive overview of the state of the art: that’s what I love about Scientific American stuff. Not an overview of the field by an “expert” skewed to their own views but a true overview. Each of the articles had a bias, but these were dealt with well.

However there were so many cringe-worthy mispronounced words it was unreal. Like Tononi’s “Phi” was pronounced like a “fee” instead of like the Greek letter. Another one was “ketamine”. This is the problem when you get someone who is not familiar with the field to read. However her reading in other respects was awesome. Some readers may be more accurate but they can sound robotic. She was much less so. But in audiobooks the equivalent of proof-reading is pronunciations at the most basic level. So those stood out like misspelling.

Insightful Collection

This was an interesting and insightful collection of Scientific American articles about consciousness. It covers many years of research and various aspects of the topic. It was well organized into sections and flowed well. I'd be interested in going back to read some of the issues of the magazine. The narrator was also professional and a good choice for the title. This was refreshing after school me of the subpar narration I've heard recently.

Not worth your time

Very boring book. Most of the information is obsolete. It is better to google that subject for latest update.

Anyone looking for Answers and New Direction

This book is excellent if you're looking for answers of the now, the mind and the world and how you fit in it.

it's a very informative book

I love this topic and this book is very informative. it doesn't try to convince you of anything, simply takes you through a lot of research and gives you an idea of what consciousness could be.

better suited for reading then listening to

consisting of a collection of articles, the amount of information and data is by necessity very dense. this makes for a tense listening session.

i liked this collection of essays

A book of essays i enjoyed, perhaps because i am no scientist and do not know the matter in details. The way the essays are presented is quite random,but still interesting. I guess if anyone expects a deep dive into the topic, they better choose another book.

Journey into mind!

A great journey into our mind, through a journey with science and ideas from great professionals in the field, makes this an attractive reading and a great adventure

Thoughtful articles

There is way more work being done on consciousness that is not present in this collection of articles. The material is dated. However, I always enjoy reading Sci-Am articles. Unfortunately for me there wasn't much new helpful data that I was not already familiar with. The one very helpful article for me was the last one on mindfulness.

Could be a lot shorter

It’s a long audiobook just to say we are clueless what consciousness is. We still don’t understand if there is difference between brain and mind. There are many studies and hypotheses, and there has been no break through in neuroscience. There needs to be a paradigm shift and scientific break through such as the possibility of quantum process for this to go anywhere.