ABSTRACT
At some point in the evolution of life on Earth some specifi c pieces of matter got arranged in a way that led to the occurrence of consciousness. At some ‘moment’ deep in the past the fi rst animals must have started experiencing. One may speculate that the fi rst experience ever had on our planet was nothing more than a vague feeling of being comfortable or uncomfortable; maybe it was a feeling of warmth or a feeling of hunger. The emergence of phenomenal consciousness in the evolution of life is astonishing. Upon refl ection one will wonder how this radical change could possibly occur. The same may be said about the emergence of consciousness in an individual life. Upon refl ection one will realize that something puzzling, amazing, startling, or bewildering happens when an animal or a human organism physically changes in a way that gives rise to the occurrence of phenomenal consciousness.1
