This month's episode of Brain Science features Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self. Metzinger is a philosopher with a longstanding interest in Philosophy of Mind with a focus on incorporating the findings of neuroscience. We discuss the implications of the discovery that consciousness is a biological process generated by the interaction of the brain, body, and external world. Metzinger also emphasized the importance of considering altered states including dreaming, out of body experiences, and even virtual reality.

Links and References:

• The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self, by Thomas Metzinger

• Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity, by Thomas Metzinger

• Blanke, et al., "Stimulating Illusory Own-Body Perceptions," Nature, 419:269-270 (2002) 

• O. Blanke & T. Metzinger, "Full-Body Illusion and Minimal Phenomenal Selfhood," Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience 13(1):7-13 (2009)

• T. Metzinger, "Out of Body Experiences as the Origin of the Concept of a 'Soul,'"  Mind and Matter 3(1):57-84 (2005)

• Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out of Body Experiences by Susan Blackmore

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