Labyrinth of Consciousness
Your brain builds your picture of the world, gives meaning to your experiences, and shapes your sense of self. But how well do you understand the processes through which you perceive, remember, and choose?
This journey explores how scientists map brain networks, why we find meaning in randomness, and how different theories attempt to explain conscious experience. You will confront the question of free will and explore meditation at the meeting point of scientific inquiry and spiritual traditions.
An optional article for Premium members takes you into the world of memory - where the past is reconstructed from fragments, feelings, and knowledge acquired later.
Thirty questions based on the six core articles will test your understanding and challenge you to connect the ideas. The Premium article is optional: it contributes no questions to the quiz and is not required to complete the journey or earn the trophy.
Enter the labyrinth with curiosity and a willingness to question even what seems most obvious - your own experience.
1Inside the Human Connectome Project: Revealing the Brain’s Hidden Connections
How do you map the organ through which we understand every other map? Discover the methods used to investigate brain structure, activity, and connectivity. Explore how the Human Connectome Project helps scientists study the networks associated with behavior and individual differences.
2Who Am I? The Neurobiology of Consciousness, the Brain, and Human Identity
Your skills, reactions, and decisions are connected to the continuous activity of neural networks. Explore how experience shapes the brain, how inner conflicts arise, and why we recognize intentions and emotions in others. What does all this reveal about your sense of identity?
3Why the Brain Searches for Meaning in Everything – The Scientific Explanation
A face in the clouds, a sign in a coincidence, a causal link between unrelated events - the mind readily turns uncertainty into a convincing story. Explore apophenia, pareidolia, and the role of expectations in perception. Discover why recognizing a pattern is the beginning of an investigation, rather than proof in itself.
4Memory Is Not a Recording – Why Do Our Memories Change?
Why can two people sincerely remember the same event differently? Explore how the brain reconstructs experiences and how other people’s words, emotions, and present beliefs can influence memories. Discover the connection between memory and the story through which you understand who you are.
Optional reading for a deeper exploration. This article is not included in the quiz and is not required to earn the trophy.
5How Consciousness Emerged: Why Humans Developed It and What It Means
How does brain activity relate to the experience of seeing, thinking, and being? Explore the “hard problem” of consciousness and different attempts to explain it - from Global Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory to Penrose and Hameroff’s quantum hypothesis. Examine the boundary between explanatory models and the questions that remain open.
6Free Will or Determinism: Do We Have Real Choice According to Physics and Neuroscience?
You feel that you choose, but where does the decision itself come from? Explore the tension between physical laws, brain processes, and conscious control. Examine why determinism, unpredictability, and freedom are distinct concepts - and why the question of choice continues to challenge science and philosophy.
7The Truth About Meditation: Scientific Facts, Benefits, and How to Begin
After exploring the brain, turn your attention to your own experience. Discover different understandings of meditation - from quiet observation to practices involving movement and rhythm. Explore how scientific questions about attention and self-regulation meet the spiritual search for clarity and presence.
Test your knowledge
Answer every question correctly to complete the journey and unlock your badge.
Mark the core articles as read to unlock the test. Supplemental Premium reading is optional.