Joscha Bach: Consciousness Is a Monkey Riding an Elephant

October 26, 2020

EP87 Joscha Bach on Theories of Consciousness

"We probably notice that consciousness is not in charge, when we control our interactions with the environment. Some meditators say that consciousness is like this little monkey sitting on top of an elephant. And it can direct the attention of the elephant by prodding it. But eventually at the end of the day the elephant is still going to do what it wants. And if the monkey thinks it’s in charge, then the monkey is often in for big disappointments when it notices that it makes decisions, but the elephant is not reacting to them. And this elephant part of our mind seems to be much older, especially with respect to the high level concepts that the monkey is developing to analyze its own behavior. The attentional control system is old, but the analytical systems that the monkey employs, as a result of its analytical, and attentional reasoning, and so on, they are rather young. And I think that feelings are a way in which the emotions, and motivational impulses of the elephant are accessible to the analytic monkey."