It turns out your conscious mind - the part you think of as you - is really the smallest part of what’s happening in your brain, and usually the last one in line to find out any information.
David EaglemanRead
The conscious mind is not at the center of the action in the brain; instead, it is far out on a distant edge, hearing but whispers of the activity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The conscious mind is only a small part of the vast activities occurring in the brain.
This quote by David Eagleman emphasizes the idea that our conscious awareness is merely a fraction of the brain's overall processing. Most of the brain's functions and activities occur beneath our conscious level, suggesting that our thoughts and decisions may often be influenced by unconscious processes rather than solely by our conscious reasoning.
Themes
ConsciousnessBrainAwarenessMindUnconscious
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a psychology lecture to illustrate the concept of conscious versus unconscious processing.
More from David Eagleman
All quotes →The three-pound organ in your skull - with its pink consistency of Jell-o - is an alien kind of computational material. It is composed of miniaturized, self-configuring parts, and it vastly outstrips anything we've dreamt of building.
David EaglemanRead
You´re not perceiving what's out there. You're perceiving whatever your brain tells you.
David EaglemanRead
Similar quotes
Scientists never stop asking. They're little kids who never grew up.
Sylvia EarleRead
In nature, when you conduct science, it is the natural world that is the ultimate decider in what is true and what is not.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
If we die, do not mourn for us. This is a risky business we're in, and we accept those risks. The space program is too valuable to this country to be halted for too long if a disaster should ever happen.
Gus GrissomRead
Of course, we would love to know more about the exact moment of Big Bang, but interposing an outside intelligence does nothing to add to that knowledge, as we still know nothing about the creation of that intelligence.
Richard DawkinsRead
I need scarcely say that the beginning and maintenance of life on earth is absolutely and infinitely beyond the range of all sound speculation in dynamical science. The only contribution of dynamics to theoretical biology is absolute negation of automatic commencement or automatic maintenance of life.
Lord KelvinRead
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
Marshall McluhanRead