What is Consciousness?

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.

--Max Planck
“Das Wesen der Materie” (The Nature of Matter), speech at Florence, Italy, 1944 (from Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Abt. Va, Rep. 11 Planck, Nr. 1797)



I have found the concept of what consciousness is to be interesting. I started reading a book called The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley. I didn't finish it because I wanted to read some books from the library before I left for Korea. I did bring the book with me to finish eventually. I found the concept of what makes our brains "mind" to be something to ponder. Descartes figured there were two kinds of mind: "res extensa" and "res cogitans". One was our "mind" of thought and the other was the physical mind. I need to finish it sometime.