Zoltan Torey - Language, Consciousness, and Self

At the heart of Zoltan Torey's original theory of consciousness lies the unique human capacity for language. Not merely referring to our physical ability to communicate with speech or sign, Torey is pointing to the potent interior landscape that language makes possible, a landscape that bestows upon us the capacity for self reflection, complex analysis, and the ability to choose how and when to act. It is in this language-enabled interiority where self-awareness arises, where consciousness is experienced, where free will is exercised, and where we humans stand alone and above all other earthly forms of life—no longer shackled to the purely mechanical reflexes of our biology.

Torey, as a dedicated scientist and theorist, adheres naturally to the standards of good science, embracing only those conclusions that are upheld by sound reasoning, careful analysis, and methodical testing. But as an adventurer at the frothy edge of a still fledgling science, his sense of profound awe and personal passion for probing the unknown landscapes that literally define our existence—and indeed, the existence of the universe itself—shine brightly through. In this extraordinary meeting of scientific and philosophical perspectives, in a focused conversation on the nature of consciousness and self, Torey and EnlightenNext editor-in-chief Andrew Cohen actually seem to push the boundaries of self-awareness, expanding the conversation, the context, and our collective consciousness in the process.

BIO

Zoltan Torey was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1929. Matriculating in 1948, he escaped from Soviet-dominated Hungary and emigrated to Australia.

Enrolled in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Sydney, he met with an accident halfway through his second year and lost his sight. After unsuccessful eye operations, he returned to the University of Sydney in 1956 and enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and in 1955 gained an honors degree in psychology with philosophy as the second major.

Working as a consultant psychologist, he began his research into the brain-mind-consciousness problem. His neuroscience-based interdisciplinary work, The Crucible of Consciousness, was first published by Oxford University Press in 1999.

Encouraged by the eminent New York neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks, Zoltan Torey wrote his memoir, Out of Darkness, which was published by Picador (Pan MacMillan) in 2003. The book includes a foreword by Dr. Sacks, who also wrote about Torey's unusually successful adjustment to blindness and power of visualization in an article in the July 2003 issue of The New Yorker.

Both his books have been translated and released in Hungary. He writes science-based radio talks and articles, and has been a guest speaker on many occasions, including events at Queensland University, the Sydney Writers' Festival, the Neuroscience Faculty of the University of Budapest, and the Center for Consciousness Studies in Tucson, Arizona, where he was the keynote speaker of the 2004 biennial conference. A second edition of The Crucible of Consciousness, with a foreword by Professor D.C. Dennett, is scheduled for worldwide release by MIT Press in the Fall of 2006.

Zoltan Torey lives in Newcastle, N.S.W., Australia.