It is remarkable that a three-pound mass of gray matter creates
the world around us, and the entire experience of consciousness
for every human being. This accurate self-awareness is so
critical to our identity as human. Chapter 5 in the Lilienfeld
textbook is exclusively about consciousness. The chapter first
discusses the most common break in consciousness, which is
sleep. It then goes into what I find some of the most
interesting topics of psychology, phenomena of alterations of
consciousness and other unusual experiences. The world around us
always feels so permanent and sturdy. However, when one thinks
of our surroundings as something created from signals being
interpreted in the brain, it appear less stable. A small
occurrence within the brain can cause people to see and hear
things that aren't there. People go through strange events such
as mystical and out-of-body experiences and déjà vu more
frequently than most of us realize. People have even found ways
to alter consciousness, whether it is through