Being a Beast

Consciousness is certainly present in some animals. It has been convincingly demonstrated in, for instance, New Caledonian crows – often by experiments involving self-recognition.

Evolutionary biology is a numinous statement of the interconnectedness of things – a sort of scientific advaita: feel it as well as know it. Feel it to know it properly. What’s an animal?

Death needs to be in the air for us to be fully alive.

Consciousness is subjectivity: my sense that there is a Charles Foster who is distinct from other beings. And distinct, indeed, from my own body. The Charles Foster that I have a robust conviction that there is, is me in a way that my body is not. Lots of the cells that presently make up my body did not exist last week and will be dead next week, a