Quantum Theory Parallels to Consciousness: Local- and Nonlocal-Consciousness
Gary Bruno Schmid, Ph.D. (Physics)
Clinical Psychotherapist
General Psychiatry / Integrated Psychiatry Winterthur ipw / CH-8462 Rheinau, Switzerland
Tel.: +41/1/261 9366 / Email: gbschmid@mac.com
mind-body.info
Can parallels to certain generic concepts and logical relationships of quantum theory: help theoretically characterize general features of conscious experience, in particular, nonlocal consciousness?
transcend the scope of analogy and metaphor to enhance quantitative prediction and provide guidelines for experimental design?
The linking between physical events and affairs of the mind required by quantum theory and described via the quantum probability field - see, e.g., (Schmid, 2000b) - does not support the archetypal conviction of direct mental influence (intention) but, rather, of <<attachment>>:
<<Attachment>> is the quantum theoretical entanglement (Tittel et al., 1998) or "resonant/covalent bonding" (Jahn & Dunne, 1986) of mind-brain states to each other or to physical states. Interpersonal attachment of mind-brain states leads to distant anticipation; attachment of mind-brain states to physical states leads to increased order. Experiments on distant anticipation ("mental telepathy") - see, e.g., (Braud & Schlitz, 1991) - show that <<attachment>> is characterized by a complex interplay of lucid empathy with a transitional object of observation, participatory interest in the situation and circumstances of this object, and <<mindfulness>> of the behavior of this object. The concept <<mindfulness>> defines a mental state of <<intentionless, expectant attention>>, - also called <<intuition>>, <<openness>>, <<presence>>, <<sensitivity>> etc.. <<Attachment>> often involves vivid, emotionally charged inner pictures void of expectation. Intention inhibits <<attachment>>.
Ordering in random physical processes may be attached to <<mindful>> meditation via lucid empathy and participatory interest making otherwise stochastic processes vulnerable to anomalous statistical behavior. (See, for example, the experiments on "Field Consciousness" discussed in (Radin, 1997, Chapter 10, pp. 157-174)).
During so-called "unusual", "expanded" or "transcendental" states of consciousness, certain macromolecules or entire cell ensembles in the brain may be mentally decoupled from their thermodynamic environment, thus enabling them to exist in quantum states. By their inherent "long-wavelength" nature, quantum states are "spread out" beyond their immediate locus. Accordingly, quantum mind-brain states would be capable of entanglement with similar states in the mind-brains of other individuals or with labile (stochastic) states of matter in the remote environment (Schmid, 2000a), (Schmid, 2000c). Labile states of matter are inherent to the stochastic behavior of inanimate matter, the psychomotorical lability of animate beings, the neuropsychoemotional ambivalence of cognitive beings as well as the ill/pathological/disturbed states of living tissue in general.
Such nonlocal states of consciousness may include prayer, meditation, trance, and dreaming, as well as mystical, out-of-body, and near-death experiences and, especially, pathological mental states induced by drugs or psychosis. In fact, "faith", in the sense of an open (<<mindful>>) trusting belief in an inner connection (<<attachment>>) to other people as well as to the world in general is the core of spirituality: meaningfulness and belonging.
Intention and decision involve precise cognitive-emotional processes which may correspond to short-wavelength wavefunctions which are sharply localized. By contrast, <<attachment>> may reduce potential barriers around certain macromolecules in the mind-brain, thus relaxing tightly centered (=classical) molecular couplings to their biophysical surroundings and leading to the mental quality of <<clarity>>. Subjective <<clarity>> (= lucid empathy, participatory interest and vivid mental imagery void of expectation) may enable such thermodynamically decoupled states to selectively entangle with others.
The quantum physicist Niels Bohr once said that mental clarity is complementary to mental precision.How these ideas allow for such phenomena as precognition, telepathy - telepathy includes such phenomena as clairvoyance, distant anticipation, remote perception, synchronicity, and the like -, psychic healing, and psychokinesis between the <<attached>> members of a fortune teller/event-, percipient/agent-, healer/patient-, or influencer/object-pair is discussed.
Keywords: Binding; Clairvoyance; Distant anticipation; Mental telepathy; Precognition; Remote perception; Distant healing; Psychic healing; Psychosis; Psychokinesis; Field consciousness; Neural correlates of consciousness; Nonlocal consciousness; Qualia; Quantum communication; Quantum consciousness; Quantum entanglement; Quantum theory
Literature
Braud, W. G., & Schlitz, M. J. (1991). Consciousness Interactions with remote biological systems: Anomalous intentionality effects. Subtle Energies, 2(1), 1-46.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1986). On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with application to anomalous phenomena. Foundations of Physics, 16(8), 721-772.
Radin, D. I. (1997). The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. San Francisco: HarperEdge.
Schmid, G. B. (2000a). Das Geheimnis psychogener Todesfälle. intra - Psychologie und Gesellschaft, 45(September), 14-23.
Schmid, G. B. (2000b). Tod durch Vorstellungskraft: Das Geheimnis psychogener Todesfälle (1. ed.). Wien-New York: Springer-Verlag.
Schmid, G. B. (2000c). Tod durch Vorstellungskraft? Die geheimnisvolle Macht der Gedanken. An der Urania 17 / D-10787 Berlin: URANIA.
Tittel, W., Brendel, J., Gisin, B., Herzog, T., Zbinden, H., & Gisin, N. (1998). Experimental demonstration of quantum-correlations over more than 10 kilometers. Physical Review A, 57(5), 3229-3232.
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