This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series The Emerging Mind, given by Villanour S. Ramachandran, was originally broadcast in 2003.

Good evening and welcome to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre,

where tonight Villanour Ramachandran, brain detective extraordinary,

continues his description of how one day we might crack the mystery of consciousness.

Last week in the first of these lectures, Rama described what he calls phantoms in the brain,

some of the curious neurological conditions he's come across in patients, which provide clues to how

the normal human brain works. This week, he focuses on what we see and how we see it, information

which is leading us to confront such lofty questions as what is self, what is this concept

that we call human nature?

Those stunning in their implications, Ramachandran's ideas, as you'll know if you heard his first lecture, are clear and accessible.

So you're required to be neither brain surgeon nor philosopher to participate, which I'm sure our audience here in Edinburgh will be relieved to hear.

I simply say to them that you're here in a

sense on behalf of the listeners at home, so if there's anything you don't understand, it is your

duty to stand up and ask for an explanation. By the way, if you browse through some of the

visual illusions on our website, you'll discover for yourself that believing what you see isn't

always a good idea. What you see is not always what you get. Which is not true of our lecturer.

He is the real McCoy. He's the director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University

of California, San Diego. Will you please welcome our Reith Lecturer 2003 Professor Villanour Ramachandran.

Thank you.

Our ability to perceive the world around us seems so effortless that we tend to take it for granted.

But just think of what's involved.

...