Brain:an apparatus with which we think we think

Ambrose Bierce( Author,1842-1914)
www.lockergnome.com/.../

While our five senses illustrate a tangible world around us, deeper in our mind we are living in a vast realm that goes beyond the objective world. This realm may not be palpable but we are very certain about its existence. It is the essence of our awareness.  Here we are going to explore this realm that enfolds within our psyche.
By using the word consciousness ⁽¹⁾I intend to go beyond the usual definition of the word as the cognition of an organism about itself and its environment. It seems that consciousness is the essence of our being. It is more than just a background for mind activities. Classical science cannot explain many fundamental properties of living things such as self replication, self repair, adaptation and so on. However modern science offers promising clues. Quantum Mechanics takes consciousness beyond just a tool for cognition. According to the Einstein’s Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, The observer is participator in forming the objective reality. The concept will be further developed in this chapter, The Holonomic Brain, Quantum Mechanical Mind and Quantum Mechanical Brian chapters.

Plato believed in duality and he described mind as a separate entity from body. Later on, Rene Descartes and his followers further developed this view. Aristotle and later on, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in contrast, rejected duality. During the past centuries Aristotle's belief that mind is a product of brain function, has been more popular among scientific community. Mainly, because Aristotle's version was seen as more objective and yields itself to experimental scrutiny. However, it seems that recent findings and new theories are favoring a new approach. Santiago Theory of Cognition sees the consciousness as a process and body as the structure.
Francisco Di Biase and Mário Sérgio F. Rocha from International Holistic University, Brasília claim;

Consciousness conception as something essential, primary and irreducible is also found in the consciousness maps, obtained from thousands of psychotherapeutics reports and consistent and converging experiences, observed by several researchers of the medical and psychological areas.” (Jung, 1959; Grof, 1985; Moody Jr., 1976; Ring, 1980; Sabom, 1982; Kubler-Ross, 1983; Weiss, 1996)

Roger W. Sperry the Nobel Prize winner in physiology in his Nobel lecture remarks,

Cognitive introspective psychology and related cognitive science can no longer be ignored experimentally, or written off as "a science of epiphenomena", nor either as something that must, in principle, reduce eventually to neurophysiology. The events of inner experience, as emergent properties of brain processes, become themselves explanatory causal constructs in their own right, interacting at their own level with their own laws and dynamics. The whole world of inner experience (the world of the humanities) long rejected by 20th century scientific materialism, thus becomes recognized and included within the domain of science.⁸³

According to above psyche has to be considered a fundamental and complementary portion of reality. Thus, I am going to adopt a holistic approach in this model. I will further assume that the world has a dual and complementary existence, an objective tangible part and a subjective imaginary portion. I further assume that these two aspects of the reality are entangled. In a sense, they are inseparable and create the reality as we know it. To summarize, in this view the image is just as real as the object itself. On this basis, my first conjecture is:

Assumption M1: Consciousness is fundamental but it is entangled with the body of living organisms and has a complementary relation with the objective world.

The dualistic approach here is merely for analytical purposes. This assumption is not made to deny the holistic nature of reality. New science suggests that boundaries between materialistic domain and subjective domain are widely overlapped. Separating these two domains is not justified. In the following paragraphs I investigate the hypothesis further. Here again I will use the notion of the complex number system to substantiate the above conjecture.

What is consciousness?
Defining consciousness is a dire task. A simple but incomplete answer is that “it is an informational domain”. We know that about 9,000,000,000 bits of data is processed in human brain every second. We are only aware of 2000 of it. In a guess work, we can divide the processed information as follows,
1/ Conscious awareness                                                                                           2000 bits
2/ Subconscious                                                                                                       Less than 1,000,000
3/Physiologic processes data (cellular, molecular etc...)                                          Less than 1,000,000
4/Ancestral data (instinct)                                                                                         Less than 100,000,000
5/? Transpersonal data                                                                                            Less than 1,000,000,000
What is the function of the other almost 8,000,000,000 bits of data being processed. Consciousness remains a mystery.

Complex Number System
As mention before, complex numbers are the basis for the formalism of knowledge in depth. These numbers are combination of two different entities. Real numbers represent the computable segment of the universe and imaginary numbers, which in my view represents the non-computable portion of reality.

Argand Diagram

 

As mentioned previously, In mathematics real numbers alone are just one dimension of the field and in a more fundamental form these numbers are written as,
 
N =X + iy                                                                

The new form illustrates the imaginary portion of the field as well. Assumption C1 indicates that every measurable element has an imaginary dimension to it and as such it implies duality. 

Consensus Reality
The consensus reality (the portion of reality that is agreeable by all) is the basis for our empirical science. The foundation of consensus reality is objectivity and quantitative measurements (which is measured by real numbers). But Dr. Evan Walker ⁸ believes that upon measuring things by real numbers we are grossly reducing their totality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wave-lengths of a flower's color does not, relay the beauty or the scent of it; neither it expresses its sentimental value and/or the mission inherited in it to carry on the legend of flower bushes. In reality, the actual meaning of a rose is much, much more. One can write a whole book about it and the legend even does not end there. Also, the true meaning of a rose differs for each person. A rose garden will raise different feelings and sentiment on each of us. The hidden essence in an object is the basis for non-consensus reality. Non-consensus reality is the portion of reality that is not measurable and yields itself to selectiveness of individual perceptions. We call it qualitative portion. The qualitative dimensions of things are very vast and do not yield itself to quantitative measurements.

This concept can be shown by using the Riemann Sphere. Riemann sphere is an extended complex plane which includes infinity. The Riemann Sphere can represent an entity where only one circle contains the pure quantitative nature of that object while there are infinite circles on the sphere representing the qualitative values of it as well.

Riemann Sphere

http://www.answers.com/topic/riemann-sphere

Please note that qualitative properties of objects are in informational domain. They are not tangible. Here I will assume consciousness to accommodate the imaginary portion of existence. Therefore, the second assumption in this chapter is,
 
Assumption M2:
Reality has two intermingled faces, a consensus portion(computable,physical) and a non-consensus portion ( imaginary, conscious-like, non-computable).

In the Quantum Mechanical Brain chapter the origin of the computable portion will be explored further.

Quantum Mechanics and Mind

I have claimed that consciousness is a fundamental entity. Here we will review quantum mechanical experiments and principles to see lf the above claim can be verified. Quantum mechanics is the science originated by exploring the subatomic particles. Recent experiments reveals that its domain is extended to macro-scale as well. If consciousness plays a fundamental role in quantum mechanics, then its effect has to reflect in macrocosm (world in big scale) as well.

Double Slit Experiment
One of the main quantum mechanical experiments is double slit experiment. Originally this was a thought experiment till A. Tonomura and his colleagues from Gakushuin University in Tokyo performed the experiment and since then it was repeated many times with the same result all over the world.  The experiment consists of an electron emitting source, a barrier and a screen. The barrier has to slit where the electron can pass through and hit the second screen where detectors record electron’s hitting spots.

When electrons pass through slits they form an interference pattern on the second screen. This is quite interesting.Electrons are supposed to be particles. They are supposed to create two bands reflecting one trajectory from each slit. Interference pattern is made by waves. How can they produce interference pattern?

The point that I want you to pay attention to at this time is as follows,
If we somehow detect and know which slit each single electron passed through, the pattern on second screen turns to two separate bands. Here electrons act like particles. Our measurement and attention or knowledge about the electron’s trajectory has changed a physical phenomenon.  How can this happen? This experiment clearly reveals the effect of our awareness in changing the physical reality.

Superposition of States
By definition, super-position of states refers to a situation where an entity exhibits two or more, often contradictory, states at the same time. In quantum mechanics it is believed that a particle simultaneously exhibits every probable and even antagonistic state. This is just like a tossed coin showing head and tail at the same time.
In our consciousness we are frequently exposed to superposition of states. For example, simultaneous presence of contradictory emotions (love and hate) and even unrelated topics are common experience within mind realm. In our mind we can accommodate simultaneously different possible outcomes of shooting towards the Schrodinger's cat (explained in Quantum Mechanics Chapter). Schrodinger’s cat is a macro- scale example of what happening in quantum scale.  If we shoot a bullet towards a cat trapped in a box, there are two possible outcomes. Either the bullet hits the cat and cat dies or it misses and cat escapes. But in Schrödinger’s Cat analogy, both outcomes exist simultaneously. That means inside the box the cat is dead and alive at the same time. The interesting point is when we open the box we just face one of the outcomes. Upon observation we see the cat either alive or dead. In tossed coin analogy, we may say that head and tail are up simultaneously. Our observation reduces the multi-state reality to just one state in quantum scale. What does reality have to do with our observation? What is the role of our attention in shaping the objective reality that we perceive? The concept will be explored further in the Quantum Mechanical Brain chapter.

On the other hand, in our consciousness we can imagine and superimpose both outcomes and then extract one of the probabilities. That is how we think, evaluate and make every day decisions. That is how cognition works as well.
Our awareness contains many data and many unrelated or contradictive thoughts. Much more is embedded in our sub-conscious as well. Every second our brain processes 400 billion bits of data. In fact we are exposed to a chaotic informational domain deep in our subconscious. Each second only 2000 bits of data comes to our awareness.  Somewhere in our consciousness we use our logic to come out of the chaos and what surfaces is in order and at classic level. We consciously normalize and raise and form only a definite and deterministic picture out of the chaos.

The super-position of information in conscious realm mimics the superposition of particle’s properties in quantum physics. In quantum level all the possible states that a particle can have are exhibited simultaneously. The chaotic and frantic situation in quantum level is not even imaginable. So does fluctuation of thoughts in one's mind at deeper level. But what surfaces is a logical and ordered outcome in both domains. During his transpersonal psychological studies, Stanislav Grof have used different methods to put his subjects to altered state of consciousness. It seems that in altered state of consciousness classical limits of thoughts is being suppressed and deeper current of thoughts reveal themselves.  

What we perceive from macrocosm is a deterministic and ordered world. How does a chaotic quantum level produce the ordered classical physics is the question of the century. Coming out of the quantum frenzy to just one state is called state reduction or wave collapse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decoherence – the blossom of just one state in macrocosm out of infinite quantum superposition states in micro scale.

State reduction is also called decoherence. It dissolves the superposition of states at quantum level and changes the super-position to only one objective state observed in the macro-world. One of the suggested solutions for arising a deterministic classical world out of the quantum frenzy is the fact that particles are not isolated from their environment. They are in constant interaction with other particles and photons. For example, cosmic rays can interact with particles in an object and reduce their states to one of the possible states. As a result we see objects in one state rather than in a chaotic and superposition conditions. However, the reduced state in classical level is logical and in order. Random and mechanical collision of particles and photons can not produce the logical and classical level of reality.
On the other hand, super-position in mind domain is reduced to one state by the act of cognition. One may claim that super position of states in mind is occurring in an informational domain, whereas in quantum mechanics the superposition has materialistic origin. Therefore, we cannot fully equate the quantum mechanical state reduction to what happens in mind realm.
Please note that superposition in quantum mechanics is happening in the gray area between virtual and objective world ( the micro scale level). In this model, the boundary of consciousness also is overlapped with objective reality in a gray area. Therefore one may reason that the two phenomena may be essentially the same. After all, at the end of process, we end up with just one status and superposition and chaotic situation is resolved. Maybe we are not dealing with two different domains, (informational and material). it is part of our original assumption that consciousness and physical world intermingle to create reality.
As a matter of fact we may use acts of cognition or conscious decision making as analogies to suggest a new pitch for the ontology of state reduction in quantum mechanics. We may further explain how the Newtonian classical world can rise from the disordered and frenzy quantum level using this same analogy.

State Reduction

In quantum mechanics the observer (experimenter) can change the outcome of the experiment (see quantum mechanics chapter). On the other hand,during mind activities, logical conclusion is responsible for delivering a definite cognition or decision out of the chaotic state of information or thoughts in mind domain. Through logic there emerge definite concepts and casual relationship between them out of the chaos. The late physicist and philosopher David Bohm describes the above concept;

Without the development of logical thinking, we would have no clear way to express the result of our thinking, and no way to check its validity. Thus, just as life as we know it would be impossible if quantum theory did not have classical limit, thought as we know it would be impossible unless we could express its results in logical terms. ⁷⁵
 

Logic consists of laws that we believe govern the world around us. We consciously use these laws to extract a logical classical level conclusion out of the frenzy domain in the deeper level of consciousness. The major portion of or logic is acquired through our everyday experience with physical environment. We may call this portion common sense logic or consensus reality. There is another portion that is distinctive to a person or a culture. This portion can be called specific logic.
Perhaps a similar mechanism is responsible for replacing the chaotic superposition of many particles at deeper level to classical level world in macrocosm. Maybe the superposition in quantum level is in informational realm as well. Perhaps there are universal laws at work that govern the quantum frenzy so that the only possible macroscopic outcome is a definite, deterministic and logical world that we are accustomed to. If the procedure is to be similar to mind function, we need conscious selection to produce logical classic level physics. But then what is the definition of consciousness that controls this transformation? Nevertheless, consciousness studies can help solving this major paradox in physics.
On the other hand, the same outside reality creates a different and specific perspective for different persons. Here comes the role of individuals to participate in creating their own world.

Quantum Entanglement
By definition, entanglement is the correlation between two spatially separate particles. It is shown that two particles are in immediate communication with each other even if they are miles apart. This mysterious quantum connection is one of the main paradoxes in theoretical physics.
Harald Walach a psychologist from University Hospital Freiburg, Germany, studied the entanglement concept with a group of his patients. He wanted to know if entanglement also exists between humans.
In his experiment, he chose a group of patients and randomly prescribed a medicine or placebo tablet for them. He shows the improvement of the patients who received placebo treatment compared to patients who actually received the pharmacological treatment was quite high.⁷⁸ He relates the improvement of patients who have not received the actual medicine to entanglement. Walach reports many other clinical experiments of himself and other researchers suggest generalized entanglement between different patients in experiments. He postulates,

By that mechanism (entanglement) quite a few other hitherto unexplained phenomena, which are deemed unscientific, could be explained. Among them would be relational phenomena as the basis for healing, ritual and other branches of complementary and alternative medicine, or para-psychological phenomena. Consciousness, possibly being itself a variable complimentary to matter, would enter the field by ways yet to be explored and would take a new role. ⁴⁴

Mind you that memories of isolated events during one’s life time are also entangled with each other at every instant. How are we going to interpret this instant correlation of memories other than recognizing a coherent and singular nature for memory domain?

Complementarity

Complementarity refers to relation of two properties (A & B) of a system in such a way that , increase of one reduces the other one.

A X B = K, Where K is a fixed amount.

Complementarity is one of the basic principles of quantum physics. There are many complementarity relations in mind realm. The fundamental one is the relation of being and being there. Being is the state of consciousness without interruption of attending to physical environment. Being there on the other hand is paying attention to material world out there. There is a trade between these two states. Wolfgang Pauli one of the founders of quantum mechanics writes,

It would be the most satisfactory of all if physics and psyche could be seen as complimentary aspects of the same reality⁷⁵.

About the similarities between mind realm and quantum mechanics, Dr. Karl Pribram, professor of neuropsychology at Stanford University states:

We got the brain data first, and then we see, look, it fits the same mathematics as quantum mechanics.....the problems that have been faced in quantum mechanics for the whole century -- well, since the twenties -- and those paradoxes also apply at the psychophysical level and at the neuronal level, and therefore we have to face the same sets of problems. At the same time, I think what David Bohm is doing, is showing that some of the classical conceptions which were thought not to apply at the quantum level, really do apply at the quantum level ...... if indeed we're right that these quantum-like phenomena, or the rules of quantum mechanics, apply all the way through to our psychological processes, to what's going on in the nervous system -- then we have an explanation perhaps, certainly we have a parallel, to the kind of experiences that people have called spiritual experiences. Because the descriptions you get with spiritual experiences seem to parallel the descriptions of quantum physics. ⁴⁵

Karl Pribram like many other researchers testifies the close similarities between mind functions and quantum mechanics. Many documents regarding the resemblance between quantum mechanics and the mind are accessible on the Internet or elsewhere. It is enough to say that the physiology of consciousness can be better described at sub-atomic level rather than at cellular or molecular levels. Majority of researches are focused at function of neurons (cellular level) during brain activities. Although this kind of approach satisfies the hasty need of studying physiology of nervous system at classical level, it is a mechanical approach. This kind of approach leaves many characteristics of our awareness unexplained.

Roger Sperry has written voluminously on his personal concept of mind and consciousness. In his view mind is one of a whole class of superior properties that emerge from material systems when they achieve a certain high level of organization.¹⁰  How does it emerge? Does it require certain physical structure to exhibit the essence of consciousness?

It is astonishing that three apparently different topics (mind, astrophysics and quantum mechanics) are interlocking with each other like different pieces of the same puzzle. To me, the missing link is the proposed singularity. Previously I have speculated that mind, quantum world and astrophysics are interconnected and together they reveal reality in a deeper stage. Isn’t it ironic that our power of creativity is initiated in our mind, and the formation of the universe is initiated in singularity?

PEAR(Princeton engineering Anomalies Research) Project

A 12-Year research program by R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, R. D. Nelson, Y. H. Dobyns, and G. J. Bradish from Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University, demonstrates the effect of mind over machine performance. The Project abstract is as follows,

"Strong correlations between output ...... of a variety of random binary processes and pre-stated intentions of some 100 individual human operators have been established over a 12-year experimental program. More than 1000 experimental series, ..... show comparable magnitudes of anomalous mean shifts from chance expectation, with similar distribution structures. Although the absolute effect sizes are quite small, of the order of 10^-4 bits deviation per bit processed, over the huge databases accumulated the composite effect exceeds 7s (p » 3.5 ´ 10^-13). These data display significant disparities between female and male operator performances"⁷⁹

Interestingly, The distance or time are not factors in these results.

"Data generated by operators far removed from the machines and exerting their efforts at times other than those of machine operation show similar effect sizes and structural details to those of the local, on-time experiments. Most other secondary parameters tested are found to have little effect on the scale and character of the results......"⁷⁹

Random Number Generator⁷⁷

Global Consciousness Project is another clear indication of the effect of consciousness in physical events. In this project a device is used that randomly can create zero or one in each test. If you perform the test say for thousand times, normally, the result should be half one and the other half zero. However if we ask individuals to sit in front of the number generator with the intention to produce more ones, the experiment shows that the percentage of intended number increases versus the unintended one (zero).
Interestingly, the experiment also shows that the collective attention and focus  of people throughout the world inclines the result of the random number generator to one side.

The data is being collected from a global network of random event generators since August, 1998. The network has grown to about 65 host sites around the world and records a 200-bit trial sum once every second. on Most major events that created collective human's focus non-random performance of these number generators. Following is the result of the experiment during 9/11 attack.

ile

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/terror.html

The above diagram indicates how the attention of millions of people to the event caused the random number generators to not perform randomly and incline towards one side. Roger Nelson, Princeton, NJ, USA claims that results are evidence that the physical world and our mental world are linked in ways that we don't yet understand. However by evaluating the results, they suggest that we are capable of conscious evolution. We make the world we live in, and if we work to do no harm, we can create a Planetary smile. This research is very interesting. For more detail please check,

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/

Quantum Mind
Still in doubt? I would like to refer you to a very interesting book, Quantum Mind, by Arnold Mindell a psychologist and physicist. Using scientific methods, he compares the mind function with quantum behavior, the mathematic field and astrophysical theories. He shows how closely they intermingle and mimic each other to create a whole system. Dr. Mindell demonstrates that the mathematics of quantum physics reveals the pattern behind psychological and spiritual methods of unfolding dream time.
Francisco Di Biase and Mário Sérgio F. Rocha from International Holistic University, Brasília, the authors of Information, Self-Organization, and Consciousness: Towards a Holo-informational Theory of Consciousness claims:

Our universe structured as a quantum holo-informational non-local field full of quantum potential with meaning, is an intelligent (informed) universe functioning like a mind, as Sir James Jeans already had observed.²⁰

This holographic organization is what the late physicist David Bohm calls implicate order. His model includes, space and time in its structure as an enfolded dimension. Functioning in this holograph mode, our brain can,

“mathematically builds the objective reality” interpreting frequencies originally from another dimension, from a fundamental order, a holo-informational field located beyond time and space.²⁰

“Our mind is a subsystem of a universal hologram, accessing and interpreting this holographic universe. We are; interactive resonant and harmonic systems with this unbroken self-organizing wholeness. We are this holo-informational field of consciousness, and not observers external to it. The external observer's perspective made us loose the sense and the feeling of unity or supreme identity; generating the immense difficulties we have in understanding that we are one with the whole and not part of it.”²⁰ 

It is a novelty that the perceived world in our consciousness is in a macroscopic quantum state. By paying attention to our consciousness mechanism we can feel familiarity an comprehend the strange world of quantum physics. The world that many like Arkady Plotnitsky from Purdue University considers unthinkable and unknownable⁷⁵.

We will further discuss this issue in holographic theory chapter. In addition the Quantum Mechanical Mind chapter of this model elaborates further into the topic.

Entropy
The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy always increases in any isolated system (see figure below). This simply means that if a system is left to itself, its temperature moves to equilibrium. In another words, its energy distribution will move towards equilibrium thus it will move towards maximum disorder. A homogenous and coherent energy field has maximum disorder. A structure is ordered.

If universe is isolated, it has to be a homogenous shapeless entity. However, We see structures all around us. Where do they come from? Structures that we see are surrounded in an environment. We need to consider the the structure and its environment as one system. Then the entropy law holds for the entire system. structuring happens at the expense of increased entropy in environment so that the total entropy of the system is positive. These kind of systems are called dissipative systems (see the diagram below).

One of the characteristics of living things is that they constantly get organized and evolve to more orderly structures. This leads us to the conclusion that living organisms cannot be studied as an isolated system either. Although they are a domain with negentropy (negative entropy), the whole system( the organism and its environment) follow the second law of thermodynamics. we need to study them as one system (include the environment as well).

The same is true for consciousness. Our awareness constantly evolves and gets more structured. This however, cannot overrule the entropy principle. We have to conclude that consciousness cannot be a closed systems. Increased informational organization in our awareness has to be at the expense of increased informational entropy in its environment. Please note that an orderly structure not only implies departure from least energy state but also requires information reduction from a coherent and invariant informational field. Then we have to conclude that there is an informational field out there for information trade. Brain cannot be a closed system. A disconnected person faces serious pathologies. A closed brain is a dead brain.

Many non-classical theories of consciousness like Dissipative Quantum Brain Theory are based on the assumption that consciousness and its environment coexist as a dissipative system.This assumed informational field can be the so-called universal consciousness or in this model the singularity.

Transpersonal Psychology
Currently, many interesting researches are being done to investigate the nature of consciousness. rTransnspersonal psychology is one of the fascinating ones. It is an extension of the humanistic psychology dealing with a common consciousness that extends beyond one’s ego boundaries and expands to other individual’s awareness. It even considers this awareness to be shared amongst other living things.  This common consciousness is not limited by time or space. Here I will compare the similarities between the proposed singularity with the assumptions in transpersonal psychology. 
William James, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, and Roberto Assagioli are among the psychologists who have set the stage for transpersonal studies.  However one of the prominent researchers, Stanislav Grof, has carried out decades of clinical studies pertaining to transpersonal psychology. He is a clinical psychiatrist and has held different academic senior positions in John Hopkins University, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, California Institute of Integral Studies, etc.
During his studies of more than 3000 volunteers, he has induced altered states of consciousness by administering medicines such as LSD and by the use of methods like hypnosis, relaxation, meditation, holotropic breathing etc. Many of the volunteers have been psychologists or psychology students themselves.
He describes his findings as being in line with the existence of a “Universal mind and Supercosmic and Metacosmic void” ⁶¹
In his book, Psychology of the Future, Grof classifies the transpersonal experiences of his subjects as follows:
A) Violation of spatial boundaries; in these experiences subjects reported the feeling of oneness with other people, animals, plant, and with all of existence. There was also a sense of identification with the entire universe. Interestingly, these properties of mind in his studies mimic the non-local characteristic of the proposed singularity (Assertion S2 in previous chapter).

B) Violation of time boundaries; While most of the subjects had no or limited knowledge about some specific events in the past, they reported accurate envisions of these events that might be ancestral, racial or even related to planetary evolution and cosmological events (in line with Assertion S3). Interestingly, in an experiment, David Eagleman from University of Texas showed that some mind altering drugs like LSD and cocaine distort the time limitations for subjects. They either dilate the time or shrink it depending on the drug used.

C) Violation of information Boundaries; the subjects reported detailed conceptualization of their organ or body tissues, cells, DNA even the atoms and subatomic particles. Much of this information reported was not prior knowledge to the subjects in their normal state of consciousness.  This portion of Grof’s findings, concerning the mind, are also consistent with this model, specifically with Assertion S5 in the previous chapter where infinite information is allotted to the proposed singularity.  Furthermore, Grof mentions experiences beyond space-time, consensus reality and the ones that he calls “psychoid nature”. He concludes

“The ultimate of all experiences appears to be identification with Supercosmic and Metacosmic void, the mysterious and emptiness and nothingness that is conscious of itself and is the ultimate cradle of all existence.” ⁶¹ 

How much better the proposed singularity could be defined. As stated above, Grof’s clinical experiences relate the consciousness to a void or as he calls it “nothingness.”
Grof also reports that under an altered state of consciousness, his subjects expressed conscious identification with animals, plants and even inorganic materials. Similarly, many pre-industrial cultures believe that “not only the animals, but also the plants, rivers, the mountain, the sun, the moon and the stars appear to be conscious beings.”⁶¹ This is also in line with the Assertion C1 in the complex number chapter which implies that any computable has an accompanying imaginary dimension.
Abraham Maslov, The well known psychologist and educator called mystical episodes reported by his patients “peak experiences”. Rather than dismiss such episodes as abnormal, he suggests considering them supra-normal. His experiences show that these events normally lead to "self actualization" and psychological improvement of patients.
Psychiatrist Walter Planke, describes peak experiences as the state of mind that engenders feelings of…

• unity in the universe ( in line with the assumption that the proposed singularity is a uniting medium).
• strong positive emotion (obtaining energy and insight)
• disappearance of time and space( in line with assertions S2 & S3 in the singularity chapter.)

Grof describes his version of peak experiences, which he calls “experience of the Supracosmic Void”, as a state where “it has no specific content, but contains everything in potential form.”⁶¹ This is an assumed character which we attributed to singularity (absence of matter and presence of infinite information (Assertions S1 & S5). This also illustrates superposition of states in quantum mechanics( Quantum Mechanics chapter). Transpersonal psychology defies the notion that mind is the product of brain function, rather it considers mind as a universal and extended entity.

Collective Consciousness
Carl Jung's collective consciousness also assigns a border-less entity to mind. Jung the father of modern psychology states that in deeper level of consciousness, we are aware of our past generation's endeavors during human history. He believed that in general sense there is a common awareness in between living things. His idea later developed to Transpersonal Psychology by Abraham Maslow, Roger Welsh, Stanislav Grof and others. The educator Robert Hutchins, points out that transpersonal psychology is the future norm of psychology. He believes our personality is the crust or skin covering our transpersonal essence. He further remarks, transpersonal psychology emerges out of personal psychology, as a result of the individual growth and maturation. He also believes that transpersonal psychology asserts that religious and mystical experiences and the perspective that derive from them are valid approaches to reality and can be studied scientifically. 

Consciousness, a Separate Essence
During past centuries, we have obtained a very detailed map of the brain’s anatomy. we have explored and found neurophysiology and biochemistry of different functions of the brain and how the brain works at cellular and chemical levels. However, none of these can prove that mind is a product of our nervous system. It seems that the essence of awareness is flourishing from deeper levels. My conjecture is that consciousness is a separate entity altogether.

One might ask, if mind is a separate essence from body, how come animals with more complex nervous systems manifest more advanced consciousness. Shouldn't all animals exhibit the same complex mind? To find an answer for the above question we can look at motion and moving organs as an analogy. Moving organs help us to relocate. With better and more complex systems, organisms can move better or faster.  However the moving organs of an animal don’t produce the notion of movement. With these organs animals merely adopt motion. Similarly, we may assume that brain does not produce consciousness. It adopts the notion of awareness. The mind performance of a more complex brain will be superior to a less developed brain just as the motion of species with a more developed musculo-skeletal system will be superior to that of less developed species.
Thus we may conclude that our brain is an organ which is actually adopting the consciousness not producing it. Consciousness is not merely an essence that we have internal realization about it. It is a main portion of reality similar information. In quantum mechanics chapter we will explore the rule of consciousness in forming the reality further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underneath, I will try to show that the rules of classical science do not apply to consciousness. I will further suggest that in order to study mind we need to use quantum mechanics.  Let us study five fundamental elements of the universe in three different domains, classical, consciousness and subatomic particle levels.

Space

In classical level space is local and regular. In addition, to go from A to B we need to follow a specific path.

Mind and Space 
After a while of sitting in your chair and reading these lines, maybe you are tired and thinking of a break. Perhaps your mind flies elsewhere, for example, to the kitchen. You may probably thinking about the coffee maker. Or perhaps your mind is with your loved one, which maybe at work or at school, at a distance. Without traveling in space and following a specific path you can meet your loved one within your awareness. If you are fascinated with astronomy, at times your mind can be two billion light years away. Where is our awareness? Can you show me a location for it? Can you give me a size for it? Is there a certain path that our mind has to travel to reach to a remote place? May I suggest that the space in consciousness realm is non-local and irregular?

One can argue that when we are thinking about remote places, we are not actually in those places, but we use bits and pieces of memories and information to create virtual locations. Nevertheless, the fact that our mind bypasses spatial distances in its domain sets an example for a non-local entity.
Anatomically, there is no specific location in central nervous system, that is designated as the center of consciousness either. If we dissect a brain we just see combination of different tissues. We can not detect any sign of psyche in the specimen. Later on we review how the Holonomic Brain Theory suggests that information in the brain is stored in frequency domain rather than in an anatomical location inside the brain. In a sense space as such can not be found in the mind domain.

 

Assertion M3: Mind realm is not bounded to locality.

Ein Ajabtar ke mano tou be yeki konj inja
Ham, dar in dam be Araghimo Khorasan mano tou
It is most surprising that we are at this corner
At the same time we are in Iraq (west) and Khorasan (east)

Jalaluddin Rumi 13th Century Persian poet and philosopher

Chris Clarke says:

“Mind is inherently non-local. On the other hand, the world is governed by a quantum physics that is inherently non-local. This is no accident, but a precise correspondence. Mind and quantum operator algebras are the enjoyed and contemplated aspects of the same thing.” ⁹

MInd you that non locality is also a feature of particles in quantum mechanics. to appear in different locations in its orbit around the nucleolus an electron does not follow a trajectory either. It just appears and disappears. The space for electron is irregular as well.

Time

In macrocosm, time just moves in one direction. it moves form the past to the future. In addition it took time to reach to today and we have to wait for tomorrow to come. Besides, time is defined as sequence of events in space.

Mind and Time
In our fantasies, we can travel to yesterday, predict events of next week, go back to ancient times, and even travel to the time of the Big Bang. Time in our mind is not one way. On the other hand, our mind does not have to wait for the passage of time to finish its journey to remote points in time or to time travel. It seems our mind dwells in any time or no time. May I suggest that notion of time, as we know it in our space-time universe, are not applicable to our mind? It seems that mind is not time bounded. Passage of time in mind is noticed as storage of memories progresses.

Assertion M4: Mind is not time bounded.

Time in quantum mechanics mimics the time in our mind because particles can travel in both time directions (Feynman diagrams).

In the second diagram the outgoing photon deflects before even the incoming photon his the electron (time symmetry)

Quantum entanglement also dims the notion of time. One of the new theories, Quantum Brain Dynamics, hypothesizes that states that give rise to the world we perceive are macroscopic quantum states⁷⁵. In quantum mechanics, time is still described by consecution of events that are happening in space. This is similar to classical physics definition of time. However, in the mind domain, time travel does not follow the sequence of local events. It is sudden and does not follow a trajectory.

Matter

Matter in macrocosm is tangible, occupies space and has inertia. Inertia simply means that we have to use force in order to move or change the direction of the movement of an object.

Mind and Matter
Matter does not exist in our awareness but its image does. Let us make an imaginary world, a simulation of a daydream. Suppose you heard on TV that this week's Lottery grand prize is twenty million dollars. You are sitting in your armchair, having your coffee and thinking what you would do if you win the lottery. Of course, at first you would think of paying off your mortgage or car loan and other debts. Then you would start thinking about more exotic things that you could do with that money, like buying a Mercedes Coup, or a mansion with a 50 feet long pool, a tennis court, at least 6 bed rooms. You would also dream for a very large master bedroom with an on-suite bathroom containing whirlpool, sauna, steam room and any other facility that you may think of. Suppose you are not married yet, you would dream about marrying your ideal spouse and you picture yourself having a very happy life with children in the mansion. Yet, all of the sudden the alarm clock rings. You have to stop dreaming.
Where is that world that you created? Can you pick up a yardstick and actually measure the size of that pool or the land or master bedroom. Show me those children that you were playing with in the backyard. When was, is or will be the date of your wedding? Where is the location of your dream? Doesn't your dream mimic the proposed singularity in the sense that it can contain any image but lacks material objects.
Which one is primary, the dream or the actual mansion? Isn't it true that dream is the origin of our creativity? Maybe you will stop and buy a lottery ticket in your way to work? While images of matter are all over our minds, no tangible matter could be found in the whole process. Matter in our consciousness is virtual and non-local. In addition, in my mind domain, I can move a huge object even as big as a planet without using force and energy . Image does not possess inertia.

What is an image? is It merely bits and pieces of information gathered together?

Assertion M5: Mind does not contain the actual material world. But it can embrace an image of it.

On the other hand, subatomic particles are mass less and point particles. They are geometric points therefore they do not occupy space and do not possess mass thus they don’t hold inertia. The origin of mass is obscure at this time. As you can see the fundamental elements of the universe in mind domain behave very similar to the laws of subatomic arena.

Energy

Energy in macrocosm is limited and conserved.

Mind and Energy

In my consciousness I can move a huge object even a planet and still have much more energy to do everything else that my heart desire. It seems that the energy in my mind is infinite. A dreamer can create a vast virtual universe without being worried about fuel supply. There is no energy constraint. Our consciousness is not even bounded to conservation law.

Assertion M6: Mind possess infinite amount of energy in its own domain and is the source of motivation, creation .

Although in subatomic arena the energy is finite it is immense. In the Hydrogen atom with the size of 10^-23 cm, the amount of energy is trillion times the energy equivalent of mass in the whole universe.  Nevertheless,  there is still unlimited credit available in the form of virtual particles.

Information

Information in macrocosm is limited. it is in order and logical.

Mind and Information 
Mind is the information domain of our body. Information is received, restored, processed and analyzed regularly. According to Carl Jung our awareness also contains more subtle information in a place he calls collective consciousness. According to him, our mind has information restored from generations before and through the history of mankind. He also includes information from our ancestor mammals all the way to the first protozoa's and beyond as part of information which is stored in our mind realm. In addition, our awareness contains the information about every probable state of physical reality and beyond, amount of its information is colossal, comparing to reduced information in the outside world. So we may conclude that information in consciousness domain is much more sizable than objective, physical world. On the other hand, the paradigm in our consciousness is for the most part chaotic, irregular and illogical.
Assertion M7: Mind is a vast informational domain. However, just a small portion of it is clear-cut and regular. Just that small portion mimics the information in physical reality in macrocosm.

The information in quantum mechanics is similarly vast and chaotic. It is believed that Planck distance that is the smallest size that can be considered space contains the whole data since the big bang .

In conclusion, consciousness domain is obviously very different from physical reality in macrocosm. However, its behavior is very similar to the laws of subatomic arena and to a large degree it mimics the characteristics of the proposed singularity.

Much effort has been done to describe consciousness within the framework of classical science. But similarities between mind domain and subatomic arena suggest that quantum physics is a better choice. It seems that we cannot study and explain consciousness at cellular or molecular levels. We have to look at particle level and within quantum mechanical context to understand consciousness.

Memory 
Memory is not time bounded or does not occupy any spatial dimension. However, it contains information of the material world. In our mind, events are not attached to the past. We can recall the events of the past to present time. Almost everything that passes through our consciousness is registered in memory. Besides, registered memories are always accessible. Finally, memories can be recalled and they reappear in mental domain at our will. For this to happen we need enormous data storage capacity . Data is also protected from overwritting⁷⁵.

In addition, memory  exhibits the interesting self-organizing feature. As such it mimics the dissipative system described above.

No specific location can be defined as a house for our mind in the central nervous system. There are different speculation about recorded memories in the brain. New theories like Quantum Field model of Brain⁷⁵ consider memory as a non local phenomena. George Franck from Technische Universitat, Wien, Austria writes,

According to Quantum Brain Dynamics, memory is printed to Vacuum⁷⁵

Here, vacuum is not the classical vacuum (empty space), it is quantum vacuum which means absolute void. Alternatively, the Holonomic Brain theory suggests that our memory is restored as spectral frequency not as spatial data¹⁹. In addition it proposes that Consciousness has a spectral nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would prefer to stop here and leave you with the fact that our mind does not follow the classical laws of our space-time universe; rather it mimics features of subatomic arena . In addition, while concentrating on the behavior of the mind, we can feel a sense of familiarity and acquaintance with the proposed singularity. 

As mentioned above, while mind realm is governed by very different set of laws than classical physics, its behavior mimics some of the very strange quantum mechanical principles. Below, we are going to explore some of these similarities. The late physicist David Bohm refers to founder of quantum physics, Neils Bohr suggestion that brain mechanism is so sensitive and delicately balanced that it must be described in an essentially quantum mechanical way⁷⁵. Later studies seems to strongly support this conviction.

 

Mind, Mathematics and Physical World
Roger Penrose in his interesting book, The Large, the Small and Human Mind, questions the idea that the mind is a product of the material world. Rather he suggests that the mind and the physical world influence each other. ⁵
There is a question about how mathematics is developed. One conjecture is that the human race dealing with material objects has created the mathematics to facilitate his cognition and interactions with the outside world.  But we see that math goes beyond the objective physical world, and mathematics can foresee and guide us through unknown territories like quantum mechanics. Can we conclude that mathematics is a separate and real entity outside of our physical world and awareness? Can we conclude that mathematics is a fundamental entity far from human invention?  
Long before introducing Planck distance, point was defined as an entity, that does not have any dimension. By experience, an ancient scholar should have described it as the smallest point that a piece of charcoal can create on a stone. But somebody's mind explored deeper into the darkness where his every day physical experience could not reach. He came up with the definition that point has no dimension. Now we know that the smallest possible size in space is plank distance (10^-33cm.). Beyond that, we are exposed to geometrical point with no dimension and no size. How did he or she come to such a definition for geometrical point?
On the other hand, negative number domain does not have an objective meaning in macrocosm either. But in the 15th century, mathematicians had to include negative numbers to be able to complete subtle calculations.  Without entering the new domain they would not have been able to close the field since positive numbers were inadequate in completing the mathematical calculations. Later on, the discovery of the electromagnetic revealed that negative numbers are describing a physical reality. So the development of negative numbers well preceded the time of exploration of a physical entity that can describe it.
Long before the development of quantum mechanics, mathematical calculation led Nicolas Chuquet an Italian mathematician to the square root of –1.75 in 1484. Of course he disregarded that portion of his calculation because it was meaningless and not real at the time. But this portion appeared and reappeared in future calculations of others. The mathematical field again appeared incomplete and ostensibly open.
The square root of minus numbers could not be described with the mathematics of the time. To resolve this, a new domain was needed to complete and close the mathematical field.  Gottfried Leibniz and others decided to call this kind of numbers imaginary numbers.

“For Leibniz, imaginary numbers where a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit. Almost an amphibian between being and non-being…. ¹⁴

Only in twentieth century, we noticed that we have to use complex numbers, which are a combination of real numbers and imaginary numbers to present a mathematical model and explain the subatomic domain (Quantum physics). One can find many more similar examples. Where did these intuitions come from? In fact mathematical calculations are ahead of us and are guiding us into a deeper understanding of the physical world.The infrastructure of any physical theory an the test for its validity is a solid math foundation.

What is the origin of mathematics? Where do we get the intuition from? Is this convincing enough to accept mind as a separate entity that is not the by-product of our nervous system? It seems that there are obscure connections beyond the physical boundaries.

Consciousness, a Non-Computable Domain
Any element in objective world is discrete and computable. But in mind realm ingredients are continuous and non-computable. As Roger Penrose states:

Non-computability in some aspects of consciousness and, specifically, in mathematical understanding, strongly suggests that non-computability should be a feature of all consciousness ⁵

He then wonders:

How one goes from computable discrete system (physical world) to a continuous system (mind) ⁵

My suggestion is outlined in the quantum mind chapter. quantum physics is somehow non-computable and has links to continuous fields therefore should be able to describe mind.

To develop the concept further, one can claim that every concrete noun (like apple, planet, body, etc.) is quantitative and therefore belongs to space-time. Obviously the concrete objects require space and are time-bound. On the other hand any abstract noun (like wisdom, hate or joy etc.) is non-computable and therefore belongs to mind realm and singularity in my interpretation. Abstracts nouns are not quantitative and do not occupy any space. They are also not time-bound.
Roger Penrose proclaims:

“If there indeed exists some sort of contact with Platonic absolutes which our awareness enable us to achieve, and which cannot be explained in terms of computational behavior, then that seems to me to be an important issue”⁵

In this view, the main building blocks of our physical world: space, time, and matter, all have unbreakable basic units and beyond these limits they fail to exist. Therefore, I conclude that the objective world is a computable entity.
Since mathematics contains non-computable entities like zero and infinity, we should open our mind to a non-computable aspect for the world as well. This leads us to a kind of duality in existence. However, we should keep in mind that these features intermingle with each other and are not separable.

Spirituality

Spirituality is an internal realization that remains the orphan of science.  Maybe one of the reasons that scientists distance themselves from investigating the subject is its complexity and lack of objectivity. In the absence of scientific scrutiny, faith is the main source where people can return to. However, religion with its old framework cannot offer satisfactory answers. As a matter of fact, old fashioned faiths constantly create chaos and disasters at family, society, regional and global levels.
Realizing, the shortcomings of religions many people have turned to mystics where still lack an acceptable remedy. At the dawn of twenty first century, it is an urgent task for scientific community to address spirituality and provide rational clarification for this main topic of human race.   Fortunately, new scientific findings are pointing to solutions for the dilemma. By liberation from mere objectivity and departing from classical science, the twenty first century science is opening the scope. Now, spirituality can be studied in a completely new frame.

Summary   
About theory of everything Roger Penrose states:

...there could easily be a non-computational nature in the correct theory, if we ever find it.⁵

Above, I have examined how actual space, time and matter, does not exist in the mind realm.  The representations of such notions in consciousness are merely images and envisions. I have also shown how the mind is a source of energy and information, which mimics the characteristics of the proposed singularity, therefore enabling us to the bold assumption that individual minds maybe the extension of the singularity.  I also have covered the studies which reveal close connections between mind and quantum mechanics. The concept is further developed in quantum mind chapter.
In addition, I have shown that mathematics has a larger domain comparing to our physical knowledge. Thus, mathematics cannot be our invention. In so many instances mathematics is more advanced than our experience with physical world. In fact, physicists are following mathematics leads to offer theories and to explain the unexplained physical phenomena.  Finally, I deduced that mathematical knowledge is an intuition emerging from our deeper levels of consciousness.
One of the objectives of this text is to suggest consciousness as a fundamental entity and to emphasize that studying and exploring its relation with macrocosm and microcosm (the world in large and small scales) is an essential part of studying reality.
How consciousness affects the reality at quantum level is a great mystery. In wave-particle chapter I am suggesting a possible solution for the puzzle.

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(1) Underlined words are linked to appropriate sites for further explanation.

The arguments presented are open for debate. The reader is encouraged to email his/her inputs to correct, modify or develop the contents. Please send your emails to; zpfields@yahoo.ca

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