“Would you mind if I read your brainwaves while I ask you some questions?” enquired Hannah Critchlow, the neuroscientist, as she started wiring up renowned theologian Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, while he meditated. The audience got a live experience of how a calmed brain graphically represented itself and listened to the latest findings on consciousness and free will.
During the first half of the talk, the experts exchanged their opinions on the degree of self-consciousness expressed by animals. Williams stated that the ability to map our experiences and to tell stories about them was unique to humans. This quality, according to him, is the biggest deciding factor in determining whether or not a species is self-conscious.
Critchlow referred to evidence that brain signals resulting in physical actions often occur after the human body has carried out those actions. Williams responded that the research contradicted everything he had assumed about free will, and that scientists are yet to measure the extent of free will exercised by human beings.