Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness

Introduction

Conscious behavior serves to optimize feelings, eg, Epicurean delight, "dopaminergic reward," Freud's "pleasure principle," spiritual bliss, and altruism (it feels better to give than to receive). However, Darwinian evolution is viewed as genetic survival, perhaps because science cannot yet account for feelings or consciousness ("qualia," the "hard problem"). Sir Roger Penrose proposed mental properties including qualia accompany self-collapse of the quantum wave function by objective reduction (OR), a threshold in the structure of spacetime geometry. Such OR qualia occur ubiquitously in random environments throughout the universe, but be noncognitive and merely protoconscious. Cytoskeletal microtubules within brain neurons are organized, or orchestrated by inputs, memory, and vibrational resonances, and terminate by orchestrated OR to give meaningful conscious moments. Supporting evidence includes anesthetic gases, that act to erase consciousness in pi resonance quantum channels within microtubules, and microtubules have quantum resonances coupled to mechanical vibrations, eg, in megahertz. On a grand scale, life originated and the brain evolved to orchestrate and optimize pleasurable proto-conscious OR qualia present in the universe. It is suggested here that billions of years ago in the primordial soup, pi resonance clouds of dopamine-like amphipathic molecules coalesced within micelle-like precursors of bio-molecules, organelles, and cells. In these quantum channels (collectively the quantum underground), quantum events were shielded from random, polar interactions, enabling more intense and pleasurable OR qualia. Pi stack geometry in micelles and biomolecules optimized OR qualia and precipitated life. Microtubules, and eventually the brain, evolved to orchestrate OR-mediated resonance, optimizing pleasure and its behavioral pursuits.

In 1985 Bob John and Brenda at Princeton University did an experiment with the random number generators resulting in similar conclusions. They asked people to aim high meaning they make the generator produce more ones than Zeros. They reported highly significant results. A couple of years later, Roger Nelson started the world consciousness project, placing random number generators at 70 locations around the world and studying the impact of mass human emotions on reducing the randomness of the devices. The results were positive. This strengthens the belief that not only we have quantum phenomenon occurring inside the living system, but living systems were also able to influence quantum systems outside them.

Double Slit Experiment

The double-slit experiment (and its variations) has become a classic thought experiment, for its clarity in expressing the central puzzles of quantum mechanics. Because it demonstrates the fundamental limitation of the ability of the observer to predict experimental results, Richard Feynman called it "a phenomenon which was impossible to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery of quantum mechanics."

If elementary particles like quanta, photons, electrons etc are passed through two slits, then there is an interference pattern that appears. This works even if a single photon or single electron is sent at one time. But as soon as an effort is made to detect by any means which of the two slits the particle goes through, the pattern changes from wave-like interference to particle-like. This leads to the famous quantum measurement problem (QMP). In language of quantum mechanics, the two physical systems are entangled. Why does observation make a difference? This is technically called the von Neumann chain or the Heisenberg chain. John von Neumann said that the measurement chain ends when knowledge of the measurement is registered by what he called an extra physical factor.

The only way of directly testing whether consciousness is actually collapsing the wave function is by using an apparatus that has the double slit and detectors on the slits inside a sealed box. The photo sensitive screen sees an alternating band of light and dark (which is the interference pattern), when the detectors are not active and vice-versa when the detectors are active. A Fourier transform gives the spread of double slit spectral power. In four pilot studies, meditators were asked to focus on the double slits, replacing the detectors by human observers. This was done to study if mental visualization also had a similar effect on the outcomes as the detectors. This gave a 5 Sigma result when people were observing. These experiments were run for over three years, with over 5,000 sessions done by human observers and 7,000 done by robot observers with same results. It also emerged that distance did not matter. The results were same whether tests were conducted in laboratory or in South Africa, 18,000 kilometers away. The same experiment was repeated one photon at a time. The results were same.

Quantum Consciousness

Bio-Molecule Base of Quantum Systems

Life apparently began in a primordial soup, from which bio-molecules emerged three to four billion years later maybe assisted by the reward seeking phenomenon of Pi resonance growth. It is very similar to the structure of dopamine, which are the pleasure molecules similar to psychoactive drug molecules that have nonpolar rings. These may have been a precursor of proteins, which have non-polar interiors and polar exteriors. It is also the basic mechanism for structure of lipid bilayers, membranes and nucleic acids. The nonpolar groups are extremely important for psychoactive molecules, like the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, psychedelics etc that have complex pi resonance groups. These simple protocell micelle might have had pleasurable feelings which could have allowed feedback since there's only certain geometric arrangements of these PI stacks. Certain sequences gave positive proto conscious providing feedback for biological structures to optimize pleasure. It was probably the pleasure due to this mechanism and feelings that drove evolution not the need to promulgate genes.

In order to have a very high degree of coherence between bio-molecules, Bose-Einstein condensation may be a viable mechanism, but the ambient temperature in a living system is too high for this phenomenon to occur. Also, the sizes of bio-molecules are very large by physical standards in order to be regarded as typical quantum systems. Because of the noisy environment, according to de-coherence theory, quantum states of these bio-molecules collapse very rapidly. However, there is no obvious limitation placed on the Schrodinger equation for its use only in atomic-scale systems. It is a universal equation and can be used for the entire universe (as is the case with quantum gravity applications). Quantum applies on length scales smaller than atomic radii but beyond that it is superseded by Newtonian mechanics. Superconductors, lasers, superfluids, semiconductors etc., are examples of macroscopic-scale physical systems that behave quantum mechanically, so it is also possible that biological systems operate based on quantum principles at least in some of their functions. Based on a number of physical examples, biological coherence may be expected to occur under special circumstances at physiological temperatures. For example, it is well-known that lasers can maintain their coherence at high temperatures due to external pumping. Moreover, quantum spin transfer between quantum dots connected by benzene rings (the same structure found in aromatic hydrophobic amino acids) is more efficient at warm temperature than at absolute zero.

Transcranial Ultrasound

A microtubule is a protein polymer that is used inside our brain neurons to transport proteins (using energy generated in hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)), synthesized in synapse. Proteins called tau (important in Alzheimer's disease) provide the traffic signals that tell the kinesin to move along microtubule filament. This is synaptic plasticity. This helps in learning, memory and coding of tau at a particular location on a microtubule. In Alzheimer's disease, there is amyloid plaque outside the neurons, caused due to damaged tau proteins that falls off and destabilize the microtubule. Amyloid plaques and microtubule stability is linked via zinc, but destabilized tiles microtubule falls off and we lose memory function.

A theory of consciousness developed over 20 years with eminent British physicist Sir Roger Penrose and Stuart R. Hameroff states that ‘orchestrated objective reduction’ (‘Orch OR’), which describes quantum vibrations in microtubules, inside the brain’s neurons give rise to consciousness. These vibrations interfere, ‘collapse’ and resonate across scale, control neuronal firings, generate consciousness, and connect to ‘deeper order’ ripples in space-time geometry. Brain microtubules resonate in megahertz to give consciousness. When an ultrasound device operating in megahertz range is put on head for about 15 seconds, it gives a high for an hour causing the right frontal right frontal temporal brain to function with enhanced awareness. In experiments on mouse, having genetically induced Alzheimer's the ultrasound opened the blood-brain barrier to get drugs across resulting in better the amyloid plaques, also improving the memory. The plaques probably went away because they activated the microglia probably by stimulating their microtubules. It probably doesn't matter as it promotes the stability of microtubules and the sweet spot being about two megahertz. Microtubules remain assembled and get repaired when ultrasound is given to patients. They sprout axons and dendrites that may be useful in brain injury, Alzheimer's and pediatric developmental delay and depression. Resonating brain microtubules with transcranial ultrasound can safely and painlessly improve mood and offers promise for Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and other disorders.

 Remote Viewing

There is a connection between mind and matter. A study of effect of the geomagnetic field and psychic awareness shows that the latter improves during periods of low geomagnetic fields and worsens during periods of high magnetic fields. If there is a geomagnetic storm, the stock market generally drops. Russell Targ, a physicist at Stanford Research Institute investigates psychic abilities. He has done that for the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA and other intelligence agencies part of the US government.

He was involved in activities like finding a downed Russian airplane in North Africa with code books on it, locating a kidnapped American General in Northern Italy, looking into a Soviet weapons Factory in Soviet Siberia, describing the construction of a huge Soviet submarine in northern Russia and detecting the Chinese atomic bomb test three days before it was scheduled to go off, and also describe that it was going to fail. Working with an experienced remote viewer he did nine forecasts whether the silver shares were going to go up or down. All nine forecasts were correct they made $120,000 which was a lot of money in the 1980s. They looked in on the American hostages in Iran, describing that one was going to be evacuated because of illness. Remote viewing is not a spiritual path, but a technique to quiet the mind and move the awareness into timeless awareness.

Quantum Phenomenon in Energy Transfer

Photosynthesis and Quantum Coherence

A theory of consciousness based on quantum computations in microtubules was presented by Penrose and Hameroff in the mid 1990s. In 2002, molecular modeling suggested electron resonance transfer among aromatic amino acid tryptophan rings in ‘tubulin’ subunits of microtubules, and from one tubulin dimer to its neighboring tubulin dimer through microtubules in a quantum electronic process necessary for consciousness. Craddock et al. further showed that anesthetic gas molecules bound in these same regions, and act there to prevent consciousness. This has been acknowledged as the ‘quantum mobility theory’ of anesthetic action.

Experiments with the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex, a pigment protein complex in green sulfur bacterium that transports electronic energy from peripheral light harvesting antennas to the reaction center, have shown the presence of quantum beats between excitonic levels at both cryogenic (77 K) and ambient (300 K) temperatures. Similar evidence for quantum coherence has now been seen in light harvesting antenna complexes of green plants and marine algae. These experimental studies, coupled with related studies of quantum coherence within the reaction center, constitute a growing body of evidence for manifestation of quantum coherent effects in energy transfer within both plant and bacterial light harvesting complexes. Most theoretical studies of non-classical phenomena in light harvesting structures have focused on the FMO complex of green sulfur bacterium because this is an extremely well characterized pigment-protein structure. FMO does not directly absorb sunlight, but acts instead as a “quantum wire” to transmit electronic excitation from the light harvesting antenna that actually absorbs photons, to the reaction center where charge separation then occurs. Regardless of the particular measure used, the entanglement is seen to persist for 1 ? 4 ps. This is considered to be “long-lived” entanglement because the timescale of energy transfer in the FMO complex is on the order of a few picoseconds. Initial entanglement provides a robust enhancer of transport efficiency. These correlations provide noise-assisted transport of energy giving close to 100% transport efficiency.

Quantum Superposition helping Navigation in Birds

Quantum mechanics suggests that objects can act across time and space with no apparent connection. Quantum mechanic phenomenon may apply to why birds are able to navigate and go long distances. The bar-tailed godwit can fly for nearly 7,000 miles without stopping, making it the bird with the longest recorded non-stop flight. During the eight-day journey, from Alaska to New-Zealand, covering 11265 kilometers, the bird doesn’t stop for food or rest, demonstrating great navigating capability and endurance. A possible chemical responsible for sensing earth’s magnetism in biological systems is the protein crypto-chrome, found mostly in the eyes.

When a photon enters the bird’s eye, it hits crypto-chrome, giving a boost of energy to electrons that exist in a state of quantum entanglement. One of the electrons migrates a few nanometers away, where it feels a slightly different magnetic field than its partner. Depending on how the magnetic field alters the electron's spin, different chemical reactions are produced. In theory, the products of many such reactions across a bird's eye create a picture of Earth's magnetic field as a varying pattern of light and dark which help it to navigate.

Conclusion

A group of hypotheses propose that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness. It posits that quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function and could contribute to form the basis of an explanation of consciousness. As life evolved, it would have started taking advantage of quantum phenomena to get an advantage in biological competition. If some of the quantum phenomenon confers an advantage, resulting in reduction in even fifty percent in the speed of some reaction or some more efficient process, then it is possible that evolution would have selected that over a long period of trial and error. A lot of biological systems contain a sort of internal weirdness, that can only be explained through convergence between quantum mechanics and biology.

Quantum mechanics seems to defy our notions of distance and time so that if you use certain quantum mechanical phenomena, time and distance can be cheated in classical sense. The nature of reality in quantum mechanics allows particles to be at two places at once, In living organic systems the environment is warm and wet, very different from what is required for quantum behavior, something close to absolute zero of temperature, shielded from all that disturbing environmental influence. Nobody expected that biological systems will have particles of energy that are in a state of quantum coherence. With evidences appearing on the contrary, our understanding of the world is bound to change drastically.

Western scientific world may be gearing to believe the eastern philosophy in which consciousness pervades a deeper level of reality. It states that the Being is everywhere, the living beings are awash in a sea of consciousness and Atman from Brahman and it gets organized in such a way and we have self-consciousness.