What Consciousness is Not: What is Consciousness?

While the following topics are related, to equate them with consciousness can lead to confusion:

• Brain activity or mental processes
• Awareness
• The conscious mind
• Transpersonal psychology (the psychology of spirituality and meaning)
• Parapsychology (the study of ESP, mind-matter interaction and consciousness survival after bodily death)
• “Paranormal” phenomena such as psi and telepathy
• Techniques such as hypnosis, meditation and lucid dreaming
• Conscience (an inner feeling of right or wrong)