John Parrington

Pharmacologist Professor John Parrington talks about the theme of human consciousness explored in his recent book Mind Shift: How Culture Transformed the Human Brain and his upcoming book Consciousness: How the Human Brain Turns Matter into Meaning.

What is the material basis of human thought? Where do imaginative, creative, or spiritual ideas come from. Can these really just be the product of nerve impulses in the brain? And is the human mind radically different from that of other species, or is our uniqueness more superficial than real? In Mind Shift, Parrington proposes a radical new theory of human consciousness. He argues that a qualitative leap in consciousness occurred during human evolution as language and tool use transformed our brains. And rejecting outdated views of the brain as a hard-wired circuit diagram, he draws on the latest findings from neuroscience to show that meaning is created within our heads through a dynamic interaction of oscillating brain waves. His new model of consciousness not only provides a material basis for our innermost thoughts but also explains why mind can sometimes go wrong, causing deep mental distress.

Parrington is associate professor in molecular and cellular pharmacology at the University of 0xford. He is also author of The Deeper Genome and Redesigning Life.