Thanks to exciting developments in brain science, consciousness—“the last great mystery"—has now become a hot topic with everyone from biologists to philosophers. Exploring key theories on action and awareness, vision and attention, and the effects of brain damage and drugs, this fascinating study considers whether we really have free will, and what creates our sense of self. Susan Blackmore even questions whether consciousness itself is an illusion, making clear the enormous difficulty we face in bridging the gap between the physical world and our private experiences of it.