This is an excerpt from Christof Koch's book, Then I Am Myself the World, exploring the nature of consciousness. The text weaves together personal anecdotes of altered states of consciousness (induced by psychedelics, near-death experiences, and meditation) with scientific findings and philosophical arguments.

Key themes include the subjective nature of reality—each individual inhabits their own "Perception Box"—the relationship between consciousness and the brain (particularly the "posterior hot zone"), and the limitations of current scientific understanding of consciousness, including a critique of materialist and functionalist perspectives.