Evidence for an Electromagnetic Field Theory of Consciousness

I wasn't sure which forum heading under which to post this, but had wondered if anyone on site here had come across the work of Johnjoe McFadden and his work on an "Electromagnetic Field Theory of Consciousness"?

I had found his work whilst doing some searching into EU Cosmology theory and Plasma Cosmology theory, and came across three papers that then led to to his book "Quantum Evolution : Life in the Multiverse". What really struck me was his work regarding Voltage gated Ion Channels that allow discharges/interaction and information sharing of our brains neuronal structures with our brains integrated EM field, and also his idea that consciousness represents a stream of information passing through the brain's em field therefore increased complexity of conscious thinking should therefore correlate with increased complexity of the Brain's em field. I'm still reading through and trying to wrap my noggin around his work and hypothesis, but there seems to me, to be a good deal of signal in this as apposed to noise, so I was kinda hoping for a second opinion or anyone else's thoughts as to this work and it's validity, as I'm thinking about ordering his book and seeing what else I can learn.

The main paper regarding this work on EM Field Theory of Consciousness can be found here with a small exert below http://www3.surrey.ac.uk/qe/pdfs/cemi_theory_paper.pdf

I propose here that thoughts are similarly electromagnetic representations of neuronal information in the brain, and that information is in turn decoded by neurones to generate what we experience as purposeful actions or free will. This circular exchange of information between the neurones and the surrounding em field provides the ‘self-referring loop’ that many cognitive scientists have argued to be an essential feature of consciousness.

Although synchronous firing may promote the transfer of information from neurones to the brain’s em field, it is important to note that synchrony and the magnitude of consequent em field perturbations may not always correlate with consciousness. The key issue is not synchrony (or em field magnitude) per se but the informational transfer via synchronous firing. An excessive degree of synchrony — as occurs for instance during epileptic seizures — may influence neurone firing (e.g. inducing fits) but will decrease the informational content of the cemi field and thereby interfere with any information processing required for conscious thinking. Similarly, although regular EEG oscillations represent high amplitude perturbations to the brain’s em field, they contain very little information and may thereby correlate negatively with attention and awareness. The informational content of the cemi field is likely to be at a maximum whenever multiple clusters of relatively small number of synchronised neurones generate the electromagnetic fluctuations.

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I think any theory of consciousness should accommodate what we call "paranormal phenomena". I do not see how an "EM theory of consciousness" can be reconciled with what we know about these phenomena from research that has already been done.
Nevertheless there may be some useful observation in his theory - it is worth reading, I think.

Thank you for taking the time to respond Ark. Your thoughts about any theory of consciousness nedding to take into account the "paranormal phenomena", echo my own, and while this concept does not take that phenomena into account, I had thought that there were some interesting concepts regarding the communication of information directly from our EM filed to our neuronal structure involving Ion channels, similar to the Ion channels that comets are theorised to use to communicate with the Sun and many earth based EM phenomena use to communicate. Knowing that our DNA at birth, before the proper formation of our brains, transmits and receives communication of information using ELF waves, part of the EM spectrum, I had wondered if the EM field was the first step in the projection of our physicality into this density, before the formation proper of our physical bodies. Thus it would be the ELF EM field that is used as the transmission wave to carry our signal to the womb and as we grow and develop our neuronal network, this creates a feeback loop, which then exchanges information with and helps our magnetic fields to grow and become vastly more complex. However our EM fields would still be communicating via the quantum entanglement of those "original template" ELF signals via the antenna of those DNA projections. I had thought that this transmission of information from our super-consciousness or multidimensional state of being may be the mode from which many of the paranormal phenomena communicate both from ourselves, and from any other cosmic/planetary or any other multidimensional beings or influences may be transmitted/received and information shared with our EM fields and then expressed in our DNA, which then changes our neuronal structure and perception (as we know HAARP likes to alter our perception and communicate with our EM field via the mode of ELF information transfer). The idea being that if we have worked to form a much clearer perception of reality and formed the appropriate neuronal structure as a consequence of DNA changes, as a result of that work, that we may perceive more of the information through a finer or more stable frequency than we currently receive and would hopefully transduce and understand the paranormal phenomena in the EM communication more clearly and fully as is.

I'm probably grasping at straws here and I think I need to research more about the structure of DNA, EM Waves and how they are expressed on a quantum level, I have some books regarding the EU Universe theory and EM phenomena subject on their way and have ordered the book mentioned above to discover what more I can learn. I'll review and share what I find in this aforementioned book once I've gone through it.

I think the important keyword here is "biophotons".

Thank you for the additional hint in the right direction Ark :) That reminded me of the work done - I believe in Russia - I have read about, detecting light imbalances and using light re-balancing to heal/cure disease and illness.

I've found a few papers that discuss some of the basics of biophotonics and I'm reading through what I can find at present, however I hope to order one or maybe two interesting looking books on the subject once I can afford it. Either Biophotonics and Coherent Systems in Biology by L.V. Beloussov; V.L. Voeikov; V.S. Martynyuk or Biophotonics by Jiin-Ju Chang; Joachim Fisch; Fritz-Albert Popp. These two books seem to be the most interesting that I've found and would I feel, help to form a greater understanding of Biophotons, unfortunately they cost a pretty penny at £88 and upwards for the first book or £125 upwards for the second, so will take a little saving/cost cutting, but I have a feeling they are both likely worth every penny.

I found a good little intro to biophotonics here http://www.biosemiotics2006.org/media/pdf/pdf99.pdf

Thank you for sharing the the link bngenoh it's much appreciated :) It looks like you've found a very good, but more improtantly, clear and easy to understand primer for the subject of Biophotons (no easy task). I've downloaded the PDF and will read through it fully later today.

I've also come across a few papers that you may be interested in reading through if your curiousity is piqued as mine is. Here are some additional links:

Bio-photons and Bio-communication http://zeniclinic.com/zen/articles/BiophotonsAndBiocommunication.pdf

Biophotons – The Light in Our Cells http://www.international-light-association.eu/PDF/Biophotons.pdf

Biophoton Emission – New Evidence for Coherence and DNA as a Source http://www.anatomyfacts.com/research/biophotons.pdf

About the Coherence of Biophotons http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Consciousness_31.pdf

Properties of Biophotons and Their Theoretical Implications http://www.anatomyfacts.com/research/PropertiesBioph.pdf

Biophotonic Probing of Macromolecular Transformations During Apoptosis http://www.pnas.org/content/107/29/12771.full.pdf+html

The links are very much appreciated.This (http://www.stress.org/archives/SISandP.pdf) is the conclusion of a book which I don't know the name of, but it is about Psychoneuroimmunology. The conclusion has a provocative title given the research that has been done here and elsewhere uncovering the importance of electricity in everything. The conclusion is "Future Directions in Psychoneuroimmunology: Psychoelectroneuroimmunology ?". Now to read all those links. :)

Appollynon said:

I've found a few papers that discuss some of the basics of biophotonics and I'm reading through what I can find at present, however I hope to order one or maybe two interesting looking books on the subject once I can afford it.

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Appollynon,

One book you might want to consider reading as an introduction to Biophotons is Lynne McTaggart's The Field. The book discusses this phenomena along with several other related topics. There is some discussion of this book here. I believe there are some references to "biophotons" in that thread too.

Thank you bngenoh and RyanX for the additional links and hints I'm going to have a good read now :D

While reading the above links and thinking on them, i suddenly realized that i had a huge piece of the puzzle missing. That piece was a fundamental one and it was that i didn't have a grasp of the mechanics of how the neuron fires. This realization came to me because i conducted a thought experiment (with a 3 neuron system) using all the available knowledge i had at the time (the ion channels, etc,etc), but the system i had created would not work. So i started digging and said well lets go back to basics. I found these videos which served both the function of a refresher and a clarifier:
[list type=decimal]
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT3VKAr4roo&feature=relmfu
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_P6bYvEjE&feature=BFa&list=PL7CFDE7AFE4521F8E&index=13
[/list]
Okay i said, and conducted another thought experiment, but still i felt there was something missing, because why are positive charges excitatory? My thinking was that it should be reversed, that positive charges should be inhibitory, because they are a neutralizing force in that since the neuron "likes" to have an electro-negative internal environment, a positive charge coming it would tend to decrease the likelihood of a discharge, which is what i think an action potential is. This had me stumped for a couple of weeks. i said to myself, obviously the model itself is probably not wrong i just don't have enough info and then while researching on this topic, i came across these:
[list type=decimal]
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8omvoO108
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXFFbxoHp3s&feature=relmfu
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQngptkPYE8&feature=relmfu
[*]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57FJ0dMfEYU
[/list]
The last video was the piece that after i watched it, everything fell into place. But that was only after i googled "What causes an electrical discharge ?" The answer i got back from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_causes_an_electrical_discharge was:

It is caused because the loss of static electricity as charge move off an object.

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i started synthesizing all the data i had in order to form a more complete picture of how a neuron works. From the last video of the 4 above, i knew that the ends of microtubules were (+) and from the first 2 videos i knew that a signal is excitatory (increasing the probability that a neuron will fire) if it decreases the electronegative environment inside the cell and that when it reaches threshold, an action potential is produced and when it hits the end of a presynaptic neuron, the area becomes positively charged and this causes the release of nerotransmitters, which go into the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron and the whole process is repeated.

So this is my understanding of the physics of neurotransmitter release which is the basis of how neurons communicate.

p.s. i only posted it here in case someone else hits upon a similar wall in their readings. Hope its not too... ..... :)

Neurons perhaps enter the biophoton picture via the brain as quantum computer models. This quantum computer would have self aware decisions that effect the biophotons via quantum physics.

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,17598.msg158746.html#msg158746

Bluelamp said:

Neurons perhaps enter the biophoton picture via the brain as quantum computer models. This quantum computer would have self aware decisions that effect the biophotons via quantum physics.

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,17598.msg158746.html#msg158746

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Meant to thank you for that link Bluelamp. An article on Sott today, aroused corresponding associations which brought me to this thread:

Despite a century of research, memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.

n an article in the March 8 issue of the journal PLoS Computational Biology, physicists Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona demonstrate a plausible mechanism for encoding synaptic memory in microtubules, major components of the structural cytoskeleton within neurons.

Microtubules are cylindrical hexagonal lattice polymers of the protein tubulin, comprising 15 percent of total brain protein. Microtubules define neuronal architecture, regulate synapses, and are suggested to process information via interactive bit-like states of tubulin. But any semblance of a common code connecting microtubules to synaptic activity has been missing. Until now.

The standard experimental model for neuronal memory is long term potentiation (LTP) in which brief pre-synaptic excitation results in prolonged post-synaptic sensitivity. An essential player in LTP is the hexagonal enzyme calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII). Upon pre-synaptic excitation, calcium ions entering post-synaptic neurons cause the snowflake-shaped CaMKII to transform, extending sets of 6 leg-like kinase domains above and below a central domain, the activated CaMKII resembling a double-sided insect. Each kinase domain can phosphorylate a substrate, and thus encode one bit of synaptic information. Ordered arrays of bits are termed bytes, and 6 kinase domains on one side of each CaMKII can thus phosphorylate and encode calcium-mediated synaptic inputs as 6-bit bytes. But where is the intra-neuronal substrate for memory encoding by CaMKII phosphorylation? Enter microtubules.

Using molecular modeling, Craddock et al reveal a perfect match among spatial dimensions, geometry and electrostatic binding of the insect-like CaMKII, and hexagonal lattices of tubulin proteins in microtubules. They show how CaMKII kinase domains can collectively bind and phosphorylate 6-bit bytes, resulting in hexagonally-based patterns of phosphorylated tubulins in microtubules. Craddock et al calculate enormous information capacity at low energy cost, demonstrate microtubule-associated protein logic gates, and show how patterns of phosphorylated tubulins in microtubules can control neuronal functions by triggering axonal firings, regulating synapses, and traversing scale.

Microtubules and CaMKII are ubiquitous in eukaryotic biology, extremely rich in brain neurons, and capable of connecting membrane and cytoskeletal levels of information processing. Decoding and stimulating microtubules could enable therapeutic intervention in a host of pathological processes, for example Alzheimer's disease in which microtubule disruption plays a key role, and brain injury in which microtubule activities can repair neurons and synapses.

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Source: https://www.sott.net/articles/show/242741-Brain-Memory-Code-Cracked-Claim-Scientists

Bluelamp said:

Neurons perhaps enter the biophoton picture via the brain as quantum computer models. This quantum computer would have self aware decisions that effect the biophotons via quantum physics.

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Very interesting Bluelamp, would say affect rather than effect the biophotons via quantum physics, but there is probably room for acausal events too, because cause and effect would probably not be so clearly delineated, osit.

Fascinating stuff:

https://www.sott.net/articles/show/223160-Neurobiologists-Find-that-Weak-Electrical-Fields-in-the-Brain-Help-Neurons-Fire-Together said:

Coordinated behavior occurs whether or not neurons are actually connected via synapses.

The brain - awake and sleeping - is awash in electrical activity, and not just from the individual pings of single neurons communicating with each other. In fact, the brain is enveloped in countless overlapping electric fields, generated by the neural circuits of scores of communicating neurons. The fields were once thought to be an "epiphenomenon, a 'bug' of sorts, occurring during neural communication," says neuroscientist Costas Anastassiou, a postdoctoral scholar in biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

New work by Anastassiou and his colleagues, however, suggests that the fields do much more - and that they may, in fact, represent an additional form of neural communication.

"In other words," says Anastassiou, the lead author of a paper about the work appearing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, "while active neurons give rise to extracellular fields, the same fields feed back to the neurons and alter their behavior," even though the neurons are not physically connected - a phenomenon known as ephaptic coupling. "So far, neural communication has been thought to occur at localized machines, termed synapses. Our work suggests an additional means of neural communication through the extracellular space independent of synapses."

Extracellular electric fields exist throughout the living brain, though they are particularly strong and robustly repetitive in specific brain regions such as the hippocampus, which is involved in memory formation, and the neocortex, the area where long-term memories are held. "The perpetual fluctuations of these extracellular fields are the hallmark of the living and behaving brain in all organisms, and their absence is a strong indicator of a deeply comatose, or even dead, brain,"

Previously, neurobiologists assumed that the fields were capable of affecting - and even controlling - neural activity only during severe pathological conditions such as epileptic seizures, which induce very strong fields.

[...]

An "unexpected and surprising finding was how already very weak extracellular fields can alter neural activity," he says. "For example, we observed that fields as weak as one millivolt per millimeter robustly alter the firing of individual neurons, and increase the so-called "spike-field coherence" - the synchronicity with which neurons fire with relationship to the field."In the mammalian brain, we know that extracellular fields may easily exceed two to three millivolts per millimeter. Our findings suggest that under such conditions, this effect becomes significant."

What does that mean for brain computation? "Neuroscientists have long speculated about this," Anastassiou says. "Increased spike-field coherency may substantially enhance the amount of information transmitted between neurons as well as increase its reliability. Moreover, it has been long known that brain activity patterns related to memory and navigation give rise to a robust LFP and enhanced spike-field coherency. We believe ephaptic coupling does not have one major effect, but instead contributes on many levels during intense brain processing."

[...]

"Whether an externally imposed field will impact the brain also depends on which brain area is targeted. During epileptic seizures, pathological fields can be as strong as 100 millivolts per millimeter - such fields strongly entrain neural firing and give rise to super-synchronized states." And that, he adds, suggests that electric field activity - even from external fields - in certain brain areas, during specific brain states, may have strong cognitive and behavioral effects.

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Source: https://www.sott.net/articles/show/223160-Neurobiologists-Find-that-Weak-Electrical-Fields-in-the-Brain-Help-Neurons-Fire-Together

Also this:

https://www.sott.net/articles/show/227837-Electrical-oscillations-critical-for-storing-spatial-memories-in-brain-study said:

Electrical oscillations found to be critical for storing spatial memories in brain

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that electrical oscillations in the brain, long thought to play a role in organizing cognitive functions such as memory, are critically important for the brain to store the information that allows us to navigate through our physical environment.

The scientists report in the April 29 issue of the journal Science that neurons called "grid cells" that create maps of the external environment in one portion of our brain require precisely timed electrical oscillations in order to function properly from another part of the brain that serves as a kind of neural pacemaker.

"This work is the first to demonstrate that oscillatory activity has a well-defined function in brain areas that store memories," says Stefan Leutgeb, an assistant professor of biology at UCSD who headed the team of researchers.

Scientists have long known that among the first brain areas to degenerate in Alzheimer's disease, leading to symptoms such as memory loss and disorientation, are the hippocampus and the nearby entorhinal cortex, important structures for the formation of memory. Those two regions of the brain contain three types of neurons that contribute to the formation of spatial memories and the spatial information in episodic memories from our life experiences.

These three types of neurons provide an internal GPS system to the brain. For example, one type of neuron, called "place cells," generates electrical activity only when an animal is at a certain position, while another type, called "head direction cells," acts like a compass. A third class of neurons, called "grid cells," provides grid-like patterns for the brain to store memories of physical dimensions of the external environment. The most striking feature about these cells is that their electrical activity is distributed at equidistant, periodic locations within each cell (shown in the figure). Grid cells were discovered by Norwegian scientists in rats in 2005, but in 2010 researchers in London detected groups of cells in human entorhinal cortex that share the same characteristics.

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Source: https://www.sott.net/articles/show/227837-Electrical-oscillations-critical-for-storing-spatial-memories-in-brain-study
Ted talk about grid, place & head direction cells: http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_burgess_how_your_brain_tells_you_where_you_are.html

ark said:

I think the important keyword here is "biophotons."

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Speaking of biophotons in relation to consciousness, fist the dictionary definition of consciousness:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consciousness?s=t said:

1. The state of being conscious; awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
2. The thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual or of an aggregate of people: the moral consciousness of a nation.
3. Full activity of the mind and senses, as in waking life: to regain consciousness after fainting.
4. Awareness of something for what it is; internal knowledge: consciousness of wrongdoing.
5. Concern, interest, or acute awareness:

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One cannot be aware of something without SEEing it:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240503-Confirmed-The-Eye-Emits-Actual-Light-Biophotons- said:

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." ~ Matthew (ch. VI, v. 22)

That exquisite aperture - the mammalian eye - through which the light of the Universe passes into the darkest recesses of the human brain, is actually an extension of the nervous system - that like a plant - grows towards the light which nourishes it. Nourishes it how? With both energy and information, which is the very dual nature of Light.

[...]

Indeed, new research published in the Journal of Brain Research in Jan. 19 2011 show that the mammalian eye exhibits a "spontaneous and visible light-induced ultraweak photon emission." More details:

Here, we present the first experimental in vitro evidence of the existence of spontaneous and visible light-induced ultraweak photon emission from freshly isolated whole eye, lens, vitreous humor, and retina samples from rats. These results suggest that the photochemical source of retinal discrete noise, as well as retinal phosphenes, may originate from natural bioluminescent photons within the eyes. During normal vision, the eyes are continuously exposed to ambient powerful photons that pass through various parts of the eyes, which can produce ultraweak delayed bioluminescent photons that arise from diverse parts of the eyes. Although the importance and possible role of ambient light-induced permanent delayed photons (within different parts of the eyes) during vision requires further investigation, our study may provide evidence of an origin of discrete dark noise and retinal phosphenes.

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In another study published in May 2011 in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, on the bioluminescence of the mammalian eye, an explanation of "negative afterimages" is provided. A common example of a negative aftermage is the bright glow that seems to float before one's eyes after looking into a light source for a few seconds. More details here:

The delayed luminescence of biological tissues is an ultraweak reemission of absorbed photons after exposure to external monochromatic or white light illumination. Recently, Wang, Bókkon, Dai and Antal (2011) [10] presented the first experimental proof of the existence of spontaneous ultraweak biophoton emission and visible light induced delayed ultraweak photon emission from in vitro freshly isolated rat's whole eye, lens, vitreous humor and retina. Here, we suggest that the photobiophysical source of negative afterimage can also occur within the eye by delayed bioluminescent photons. In other words, when we stare at a colored (or white) image for few seconds, external photons can induce excited electronic states within different parts of the eye that is followed by a delayed reemission of absorbed photons for several seconds. Finally, these reemitted photons can be absorbed by non-bleached photoreceptors that produce a negative afterimage. Although this suggests the photobiophysical source of negative afterimages is related retinal mechanisms, cortical neurons have also essential contribution in the interpretation and modulation of negative afterimages.

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The light that emanates through the "window of the soul," the human eye, is not "imagined," but real and these biophotons contain energy and information (wave-particle complementarity of Light), capable of transforming our understanding of one another, and ourselves.

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