The primary aim of Sir John Carew Eccles’s set of Gifford Lectures in 1977, The Human Mystery, is to renew a general sense of mystery and wonder at the workings of the natural world at all levels, from cosmology to neurochemistry. Eccles surveys a variety of these levels, beginning with the macrocosmic scale and the origins of the universe, continuing through to the beginnings of galaxies, life and its evolution, our own place in this evolutionary development, elements of human culture such as language and values and finally ending with the microcosmic scale involving the external and internal functioning of individual humans and consciousness. Underlying the project is a belief that there are aspects of our reality that are not exhausted by present scientific theories and may never be in the future, thus leaving room for a theology to exist alongside scientific explanations.

KEY WORDS: Neuroscience, Nobel, Mystery, Evolution, Philosophy, Dualism, Science, Materialism, Reductionism, Universe, Meaning, Value, Neurology, Consciousness