We are a team of researchers at the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex.
We are seeking to lay the groundwork for a rigorous scientific understanding of the brain which can account for the fact that we are all conscious.
Many fields of science treat the human brain and body a bit like it's just a machine, and it doesn't matter that you are conscious. This can be a very useful, if simplified, way to conduct scientific research. A researcher investigating what temperatures are optimal for cell growth doesn’t need to know exactly what it is like when you feel the sun’s gentle rays hitting your skin on a warm summer day. Investigations into the fluid dynamics of the circulatory system don’t rely on knowing all the emotions you feel when you see someone you love and your heart starts beating faster. But we are not such researchers. We are working to understand human conscious experience itself from a scientific perspective.
If you want to see how we are doing this with hallucinations - you can take part in this experiment. But there are many other ways we are approaching this idea, have a look at these: