The Mystery of Consciousness — Illuminated by Science
How Neuroscience and Quantum Physics Help Us Understand Ourselves and the Nature of Reality
What is behind our ability to be aware that we are aware? How is it that we can make sense of complex ideas and consciously choose how we respond to the world around us? Unlike animals, how come we have the capacity to examine our own behaviors and actions?
The term consciousness is often used to refer to that mysterious something that is responsible for these wonderful human capabilities.
The question of how consciousness arises is one mankind has been asking since the beginning of time. Countless perspectives have been expressed through the worlds of art, philosophies, religions, and science. Understanding consciousness better can help us make wiser decisions and create the lives that we fully enjoy living.
As humanity and as individuals, knowing ourselves is the key to transforming those parts of us that are no longer taking us in the direction we say we want to go.
A CONTROVERSIAL IDEA FROM A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER
Every day, science is coming closer to shedding a light on some of the mysteries of the mind. There are already a lot of solid science-based theories about consciousness — yet many are still seen as controversial. The ones I want to examine here in particular are those that bridge the worlds of quantum physics and neuroscience.
A notable physicist who has been working on unraveling some of the mysteries of consciousness just won a Nobel Prize this month. Sir Roger Penrose, now 89 years young, is a theoretical physicist from Oxford University.
He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that the general theory of relativity is responsible for forming black holes. Penrose worked alongside Stephen Hawking to expand on Einstein’s theory of relativity. Together they’ve explored gravitational singularities — points of infinite density out of which the universe may have formed.
Yet even despite his brilliant findings, he has received criticism for his theories about the connection between the brain and consciousness. Namely, the idea that consciousness could be the result of quantum happenings inside the brain.
“We need a major revolution in our understanding of the physical world in order to accommodate consciousness. The most likely place, if we’re not going to go outside physics altogether, is in this big unknown — namely, making sense of quantum mechanics.” — Roger Penrose
THE BRAIN AS A QUANTUM COMPUTER?
After Penrose published his book “The Emperor’s New Mind” in 1989, he was approached by scientist Stuart Hameroff. Together they came up with the Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory, suggesting that quantum coherence happens inside the protein structures in our brains known as microtubules. Quantum coherence is when a large number of particles act together in a highly synchronized manner.
Until that point — and even now — many scientists doubt that quantum phenomena can happen inside the brain because of its warm, wet, and noisy environment. The general conclusion is that quantum coherence only applies in highly organized and cold environments.
Penrose and Hameroff have shown that microtubules have the capacity to store and process the large amounts of information and memory that allow for consciousness. These “molecular computers,” as Hameroff might refer to them, have quantum resonances in gigahertz, megahertz, and kilohertz frequency ranges.
OUR BODIES ON THE QUANTUM LEVEL
The universe is essentially composed of the quantum level where a lot of “weirdness” happens. Things like superposition (particles being able to be in multiple states and locations at once) and quantum entanglement (particles remaining forever connected) happen within everything — all the time. It’s just a question of whether we’re able to perceive them.
The problem with exploring consciousness is that too many scientists are unwilling to combine findings from multiple disciplines.
When everything in life is made up of the same essential thing — energy which appears as matter in certain states — why do we insist on putting boxes around the way we examine Life itself?
Quantum physics has an important role to play inside our bodies. As I expanded upon in my article series “How Thoughts Turn to Things: According to Quantum Biology,” the world of the quantum can be seen at many levels of our waking consciousness, including possibly explaining how our mental acts (thoughts, feelings, beliefs) turn into physical manifestations.
CONSCIOUSNESS AS AN ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD
In the article series mentioned above, I follow the chapters of the book “Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology,” written by scientists Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili. Whereas the Penrose-Hameroff hypothesis assumes that microtubules are the mediator of consciousness, Johnjoe McFadden proposes that there is something else behind the quantum phenomena in our bodies: voltage-gated ion channels in neuronal cell membranes inside our brain.
As explained further in this article, the brain has an electromagnetic field which affects its functions and structures. This field is generated by the electrical activity of the brain’s nerves. Electromagnetic fields have the ability to move anything that has mass. As McFadden proposes, this includes magnetic particles such as the ions found in nerve ion channels.
We are, in a sense, part of an electromagnetic field out of which all phenomena arises — including our thoughts, ideas, feelings, and sensations.
While McFadden and Al-Khalili dismiss the Penrose-Hameroff theory as not relevant to explaining consciousness, they themselves are pointing to the important role that quantum mechanics plays in biology throughout their whole book (Life on the Edge).
PUSHING THE FRONTIERS OF BRAIN RESEARCH
Regardless of where in the brain quantum mechanics plays a role, it seems silly to deny that there is indeed a connection between the world of the quantum, electromagnetism, and biology.
We keep trying to cut life into pieces — all the while it’s keeping us alive in one coherent whole — even as you are reading these words thanks to your sight consciousness.
Regardless of how outrageous we think any idea is, we must remain open to all possibilities. The beauty of science is that it allows us to test those possibilities for ourselves. Often theories arise out of direct experience.
In our own lives, we witness our ability to translate ideas into realities on a daily basis. Even now, as I am writing this article, something is causing me to outpour ideas onto these pages, bringing these words to life.
I believe that if we can keep pushing the frontiers of science by doing more research on the role electromagnetism within the brain, we will eventually come to realize how much our own thoughts, perceptions, and feelings influence the very nature of our health and our daily personal reality — and humanity on a collective level.
BRINGING ANCIENT WISDOM BACK
Wisdom of the ages, whether through philosophies (namely those of Eastern origin such as Buddhist, Vedic, or Taoist ideas) or religions, often speaks of the nature of reality through the language of direct experience.
It is up to our latest tools of science to translate that experience into a language we can all understand and agree upon.
The language of mathematics is a beautiful means to do so; it is free of the filters of cultural bias and fears that often lead to misunderstandings between people.
Many scientists, particularly in the field of quantum mechanics, have been showing us the interconnected nature of life for decades. Many have also been inspired by these ancient wisdoms, including one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, David Bohm.
“In some sense man is a microcosm of the universe; therefore what man is, is a clue to the universe. We are enfolded in the universe. The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.” — David Bohm
A SCIENCE THAT EMPOWERS HUMANITY
Through the language of math and physics, scientists have revealed that we are not separate from one another, that the mind and the body are in constant communication with each other, and that our thoughts and emotions indeed color our very own experience and health.
Imagine how different our world would be if every child was taught these elemental basics in science class.
To those in the fields of science and education: let’s keep opening our minds and expanding those of others through being unafraid to examine ideas that seem to be too “out there.”
Even Penrose admits that quantum mechanics doesn’t have all the answers — that there is perhaps a whole new field of science on the horizon we have yet to discover.
But until then…as humanity, it is our task to keep reminding one another of our mutual interdependence and interconnectedness. That is how we free ourselves from constantly experiencing those self-imposed issues that have plagued us for generations: fear, anger, grief, hatred, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and depression.
All of these arise out of the false perception that we are somehow separate from one another and from life — that there aren’t enough resources to go around — that there isn’t help — that there isn’t love. In truth, we have only to shift our awareness and realize that we can be the source of these things in any moment.
YOU ARE PART OF A LARGER CONSCISOUNESS
As I concluded in the How Thoughts Turn to Things article series, we are not just powerless bundles of nerves and joints floating through a random planet. We are an essential piece of a larger interconnected system.
We are one. It really doesn’t matter how exactly we try to explain it in the words of language or science. The more important thing is embodying this truth and living according to it.
Even if somehow all of these great scientists were wrong — and we aren’t all part of one human family — can we think of a better way to live than to respect and honor all of life as if it were part of our family on this short trip around the earth?
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” — Albert Einstein
When we understand that we are part of a larger field of consciousness that is intelligent and knows how to keep our hearts beating and our breaths going in and out, we can relax. We can let go of our fears and truly be the authentic and wonderful selves we’ve always know ourselves to be.
The day we realize that we matter, we will live our lives as if they matter too. Because they do. YOU matter — more than your conscious mind allows you to know sweet soul.
SOURCES
http://nautil.us/issue/47/consciousness/roger-penrose-on-why-consciousness-does-not-compute
https://www.newscientist.com/people/roger-penrose/#ixzz6b7hcKSAk
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/is-your-brain-really-a-co_b_7756700
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherence_(physics)