Mind and matter are one of the central philosophical quests of the greatest thinkers for thousands of years (http://www.enotes.com/science-religion-encyclopedia/mind-body-theories). Other than religious thoughts, there are two major branches: Materialism doesn’t admit existence of mind. It believes everything, including human body activities, is predetermined according to physics laws, but can hardly explain obvious life/conscious phenomenon. Idealism believes everything in the world is a subjective creation of mind. But the objectivity of a man or a tree cannot be denied and is beyond mind’s control. While there is truth in each of the schools, none is realistic. Also, there are dualism theories (e.g. Plato and Aristotle) which believe both mind and body exist. However, none of them proceeded to explore how mind and body work together, which is exactly what is sought for in this research.
That it remains controversial may be because the materialists cannot find any violation of physics laws in the world, while idealists see obvious mind manipulation and can always claim the world being no different from one created in a dream. Nevertheless, unlike ethics or political philosophy which may be subjective, problem of mind and matter is objective and non-personal and hence should be a scientific subject rather than a philosophical one (in my opinion). That it still remains as a philosophical subject is because there is no definite evidence to support either of the schools.
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