What is the secret of consciousness? Is it the quantum nano tubules inside our nerve cells? Is it a fundamental force of nature? Is it perhaps something from outside this universe altogether? No, it's something much more disappointing than that. But the reason it seems such an anticlimax at first is only that we've been looking so hopefully and anxiously for the wrong thing. The truth is actually very exciting, but to understand why, we need to learn how to look at ordinary things in an extraordinary way. And we need to do this as soon as possible, before we cause our fellow sentient beings more suffering than we would wish.