The book is devoted to a discussion of the “hard problem of consciousness” - the question of why the functioning of the human brain is accompanied by subjective experience. The origins of this problem, first clearly formulated by the Australian philosopher D. Chalmers in the early 90s, are examined. XX century. Its relationship to the mind-body problem and the problem of mental causation is analyzed. Based on the works of J. Searle, D. Dennett, D. Chalmers and many other analytical philosophers, various approaches to the mystery of consciousness are critically assessed. In the final part of the book, the author offers his own vision of the “difficult problem”, which allows, from his point of view, to avoid conceptual dead ends and pay tribute to the intuitions of common sense