FOLK VIEW OF CONSC

Many of us hold a folk view of consciousness that is not true but is compelling because of how it feels—we feel as though there is a little version of ourselves inside our heads, telling us what is going on in the world and reminding us to take out the trash on Mondays. A more elaborated version of the myth goes something like this: There’s a miniature version of us inside our heads, sitting in a comfortable chair, looking at multiple television screens. Projected on the screens are the contents of our consciousness—the external world that we see and hear, its tactile sensations, smells, and tastes— and the screens also report our internal mental and bodily states: I’m feeling hungry now, I’m too hot, I’m tired. We feel that there is an internal narrator of our lives up here in our heads, showing us what’s going on in the outside world, telling us what it all means, and integrating this information with reports from inside our body about our internal emotional and physical states.