Why do human beings find meaning in things? What are the sources of meaning? How does it work? These are questions for cognitive semiotics, a new research paradigm that embraces experiential, experimental and observational methods, seeking to reconcile the natural and human sciences. We ground the development of human consciousness in movement, mimesis and modeling, drawing on diverse disciplines from linguistics and anthropology to biology and neuroscience, asking if a better understanding of meaning might make us better people.