# Consciousness May Be a Conjuring Trick by Nicholas Humphrey > “I believe that human consciousness is a conjuring trick, designed to fool us into thinking we are in the presence of an inexplicable mystery.” > **— Nicholas Humphrey**, *2005, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Psychologist, London School of Economics; Author, The Mind Made Flesh](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11964) — Edge published this exact, continuous passage in its 2005 Annual Question collection, *WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Host Infrastructure Overview]] - **Article:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Consciousness|Consciousness]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Consciousness|Consciousness]] - [[wiki/Nicholas Humphrey|Nicholas Humphrey]] - [[wiki/Philosophy of Mind|Philosophy of Mind]] - [[wiki/Artificial Consciousness|Artificial Consciousness]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “I believe that human consciousness is a conjuring trick, designed to fool us into thinking we are in the presence of an inexplicable mystery.” — Nicholas Humphrey, 2005, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-nicholas-humphrey-consciousness-conjuring-trick ```