One way that the research is increasingly turning is to meditation. That's sort of a crude way of boosting your consciousness, and there are various behavioral markers in terms of increased performance on working memory tasks and so on. And it's shown not just to have behavioral effects, but also to change both brain activity and brain anatomy.
How has your research influenced you?
For my general framework for consciousness, I think trying to maintain a skeptical attitude towards any habits one has laid down over one's lifetime—and when we're adults, we have so many of these little habits and strategies—and trying to have a more novel approach to life, find new ways of looking at things, new ways of approaching life, trying to generate freshness, as a way of boosting your consciousness quite directly. And when you do that, I think your quality of life significantly improves.
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