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Making Sense with Sam Harris
Making Sense with Sam Harris

#475 — The Hard Problem of Consciousness

May 12, 2026

Summary

⏱️ 7 min read

Overview

Sam Harris and Michael Pollan reunite for the first time since 2018 to explore consciousness, building on Pollan's new book 'A World Appears.' Their wide-ranging conversation examines fundamental questions about the nature of consciousness, the hard problem of explaining subjective experience, the role of psychedelics in consciousness research, and concerns about AI. They discuss how meditation and psychedelics offer complementary approaches to understanding consciousness—not just through intellectual analysis but through direct experience. The conversation blends rigorous philosophical inquiry with practical insights from neuroscience and contemplative traditions.

Psychedelics and Consciousness Research

Pollan discusses how psychedelics unexpectedly became a recurring theme in his consciousness book, not because he brought them up, but because scientists working on consciousness kept mentioning their personal experiences with these substances. He describes how psychedelics 'defamiliarize' consciousness by 'smudging the windshield' through which we normally perceive reality, making us suddenly aware of consciousness itself. The conversation explores how the scientific and cultural landscape around psychedelics has dramatically changed since the 1960s.

  • Psychedelics reliably defamiliarize consciousness, making people suddenly aware of it by 'smudging the windshield' through which they normally perceive reality
  • Many consciousness scientists unbidden told Pollan about how psychedelic experiences influenced their work, even though they weren't conducting studies with these substances
  • The first major Johns Hopkins study on psychedelics focused on mystical experience, demonstrating that psychedelics are a legitimate tool for studying this aspect of human consciousness
  • Psychedelics have become bipartisan, with more support from the right than left, including from groups focused on veteran PTSD and suicide prevention
" One of the things psychedelics kind of reliably do for people is defamiliarize consciousness. You're suddenly made more aware of it. I describe it in the book as like smudging the windshield through which you normally perceive reality. And suddenly you realize, hey, there's a windshield. "

Defining Consciousness and Related Concepts

Pollan and Harris begin by disambiguating key terms that are often conflated in discussions about consciousness. They distinguish between sentience (basic ability to sense and respond to environment), consciousness (subjective experience or 'what it's like' to be something), intelligence (problem-solving ability), and cognition (information processing). This foundational distinction reveals that consciousness and intelligence are orthogonal—not on the same spectrum—which has profound implications for discussions about AI and animal minds.

  • Sentience is a basic, foundational capacity involving sensing environmental changes and moving toward beneficial stimuli—potentially a property of all life, even single-celled organisms
  • Consciousness is defined simply as experience or subjective experience—the fact that 'the lights are on'
  • Intelligence and consciousness are orthogonal, not on a spectrum together—intelligence is problem-solving ability that can exist without consciousness
  • Human consciousness is just how humans 'do sentience,' and every conscious creature does it differently based on their sensorium and body type
" Intelligence and consciousness are not on a spectrum, they're orthogonal. Intelligence is problem-solving ability. We all know people who are conscious and not intelligent—they don't necessarily go together. "

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