"What is the nature of this problem? It arises from a fact and a theory. The fact is that our minds and consciousnesses are clearly very intimately connected with our bodies; the theory is that we know that all physical bodies are alien to mind. In other words, reflective thought has been pulled in two different directions at the same time and has been unable to work out a harmonious view. The physical sciences have assumed that they alone had the physical world for their object and they have naturally concluded that the physical world must be conceived only in terms of the information they have acquired. The consequence has been the existence of a dualism. Mind and consciousness are real, yet immaterial. The physical world is real, yet material. The mind-body problem has consisted in the attempt to relate two such antithetical realities. That they are actually related has always seemed undeniable—at least the denial of a relation has been the counsel of despair. But how to conceive the relationship has been the crucial point of metaphysics."