A warning first.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Being personal, the question might confuse some. The solid ground of the self may shift. Descartes found fundamental solidity purely in his conscious thinking. A large part of Western culture has been built on that, including what is, to many, also a personal ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, it\u2019s good to know that the answer leads to a more solid ground \u2015 one that meanwhile may relieve much unnecessary suffering and enhance growth. Indeed, one that eventually leads to Compassion. It\u2019s worth the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although consciousness may seem magical, no magic is involved, nor a reducing-away of a magical feel \u2015 quite the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow can I be intelligent?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It may not look like it at first sight, but this has the same \u2018magical quality\u2019 as the title\u2019s question. It used to be equally mind-boggling many years ago, but we\u2019ve become used to inventions that take on characteristics of what people found intelligent<\/em> earlier on \u2014 for instance, a hand calculator, a personal computer, and now GPT-technology. At every turn, the intelligence concept has receded to what we ourselves can accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how can one BE intelligent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without magic, there is no magic. If a system does everything an intelligent system does, then it\u2019s intelligent. There is no magical \u2018intelligence essence\u2019 on top of that. The doing is the being, just seen from a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar disappearance of something magical has occurred in the field of life, formerly seen as a mysterious \u2018\u00e9lan vital,\u2019 now concocted as artificial self-reproducing life in a lab (Craig Venter Institute in San Diego<\/a>)\u00a0\u2015 no \u2018life essence\u2019 anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your finger and your nose<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A perhaps unexpected answer to the title\u2019s question lies in a simple experiment. Put your finger on your nose. Does this lead to one experience (finger on nose) or two (nose, finger)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the difference in distance between nose-brain (7 cm; 3 inches) and finger-brain (1 m; 3,5 feet), the information reaches your brain with a time difference that is definitely enough so there should be two experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can you then be conscious of the one? How can you be not conscious of the two? Did one of them just vanish, or did they merge? Apparently, something in-between (namely, part of your brain) creates the one experience from the dual input. There is a doing (the creation) that is also a being, just seen from a different perspective. Your conscious experience in this is the experience of what your non-conscious does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The terminology may be confusing, but if a system does everything a conscious system does, then it\u2019s conscious \u2015 whether or not it\u2019s called \u2018non-conscious\u2019 (which it mostly is).<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no magical \u2018consciousness essence\u2019 on top of that. Of course, if one starts with the certitude that something magical must be involved, it\u2019s difficult to see through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TMS\/EEG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a recently developed way of investigating the brain that sheds profound light on the nature and flexibility of consciousness. This shows not to be one unitary thing, but something continually in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n