Dr. Francisco Di Biase Dept Neurosurgery and Neurology, Clínica Di Biase and Santa Casa, Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro Dept Post-Graduation, UGB Universidade Geraldo Di Biase, Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilFull Professor, Grand PhD, World Information Distributed University, Belgium. Honorary Professor, Albert Schweitzer International University, Suíçadibiase@terra.com.br
Abstract
The author proposes a holoinformational model of consciousness based on the holographic theory of brain function developed by Karl Pribram, on the quantum brain microsites of Nobel Prize winner Sir John Eccles, and the quantum brain dynamics developed by Hameroff, Penrose, Jibu and Yasue. This conceptual framework is integrated to the quantum-holographic theory of the universe of David Bohm, and the non-local information concept of the Quantum Field Theory of Umesawa. The concepts of negentropy, information and organization developed by Shannon, Wiener and Brillouin, and the theories of self-organization and complexity of Prigogine and Atlan are also revisited. Wheeler’s “it from bit” concept of a participatory universe and the new physics of information developed by Zurek with his algorithmic entropy, related to the number of bits in the mind of the observer are also considered. This new synthesis gives a self-organizing quantum-holographic non-local informational basis for a holoinformational model of consciousness in a idivisible and participatory universe. In this synthesis, consciousness is conceived as a unified quantum informational field interconnecting brain and cosmos, a holoinformational field, that has a local/Newtonian mechanistic component - the classic neural networks- interconnecting brain and mind, and a non-local/quantum holistic component - the quantum holographic neural networks - interconnecting mind and cosmos.
Keywords: Consciousness, non-local quantum information, quantum-holographic neural networks, quantum-holographic theory of the universe, mind-universe interconnection.
Introduction
We are living through a special moment in human history with the emergence of a fantastic and integral worldview [1] that has allowed us to understand that our mind is a quantum-holographic informational consciousness expanded and interconnected to the universe. This new worldview will trigger and guide a technological development similar to Arthur Clarke's "magical" world, in which we will no longer be able to differentiate between technology and magic. We will be creators not only of stem cells and nanobots, but also of stars and galaxies. It's a more comprehensive worldview than the quantum-relativist paradigm that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, which connects all levels of the universe through the phenomenon of non-local quantum information that interconnects all systems of cosmic self-organization.
Our civilization has come to understand with astonishing speed all the scientific foundations of the generation of energy and matter, and the control of quantum information that allows the generation and evolution of life. More recently, consciousness has ceased to be an unsolvable mystery thanks to conceptions such as that of holoinformational consciousness, which we have been publishing over the last 15 years together with Drs Karl Pribram and Richard Amoroso, in the USA and Europe, and which we summarize in this article.
The quantum field theory developed by Umesawa [1] with the concept of non-local information interconnecting everything in the universe, from quantum physics and chemistry, to quantum biology, quantum mind and consciousness and quantum cosmology all finely tuned for the emergence of life [3] shows us that human evolution and the emergence of mind and consciousness are the inevitable consequence of an intelligent informational universe. This intelligent holoinformational self-organizing field is continuously emerging from a plenum (not a vacuum) the quantum field that permeates the entire cosmos with information and quantum energy appearing out of nowhere every billionth of a trillionth of a second.
This plenum quantum field is a kind of cosmic DNA disseminating active information with meaning that forms reality throughout the universe, creating the galaxies, stars and supernovae that with their thermonuclear furnaces of millions of degrees Celsius are the generators of the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms that underlie all forms of life. The signature of this highly tuned non-local quantum in-formational field for the emergence of life is so fundamental to cosmic evolution and the emergence of life and consciousness that it must be seen as a cosmic organizing principle with a "status" equal to matter, energy and space-time, and as we shall see, also to consciousness.
Informação auto-organização e negentropia
Chalmers [4] states that consciousness and information is an essential property of reality, just like matter and energy, and that "conscious experience should be considered a fundamental characteristic, irreducible to anything more basic". He argues that each informational state has two different aspects, one as conscious experience, and the other as a physical process in the brain, i.e. one internal/intentional, and the other external/physical.
This view finds support in current developments in so-called "Information Physics", developed by physicist Wojciech Zurek [5] and others in the early 1990s, who developed Quantum Information Theory and demonstrated that in addition to the Law of Conservation of Energy there is a more fundamental Law of Conservation of Information.
In this process of developing a new Quantum Information Theory, Zureck proposed that physical entropy would be a combination of two quantities that compensate for each other: the ignorance of the observer, measured by Shannon's classical statistical entropy, and the degree of disorder of the observed system, measured by the algorithmic entropy, which is the smallest number of bits needed to record it in memory. During measurement, the observer's ignorance is reduced as a result of the increase in the number of bits in their memory, while the sum of these two quantities, i.e. the physical entropy, remains constant.
In this context, the equivalence/identity between order, negative entropy and information, which was developed by Brillouin in his famous theorem, is the path that allows us to develop and understand the entire irreducible and natural flow of order transmission in the universe, organized in a meaningful and intelligent informational mode. In classical thermodynamic theory, the definition of order is probabilistic and dependent on the concept of entropy, which measures the degree of disorder in a system, and which reduces the immense dimension of natural meanings to uncertainty.
For Atlan [6,7], and for us, Di Biase [8,9,10,11,12, 13], "entropy should not be understood as a measure of disorder, but much more as a measure of complexity". To achieve this, it is necessary to consider that information implies a certain ambiguity, meaning either the capacity in bits of a physical system as Shannon [14] puts it, or the semantic content (the meaning) carried by the bits during a communication. In classical information theory, the organization, the order expressed by the amount of information in the system (Shannon's H function) is the measure of the information we lack, the uncertainty about the system.
By relating this uncertainty, this ambiguity, to the variety and non-homogeneity of the system, Atlan [7] was able to resolve certain logical paradoxes of self-organization and complexity, extending Shannon's theory and defining organization in a quantitatively formal way. Thus, Atlan demonstrated that the order of the system corresponds to a compromise between the maximum informational content (i.e. the maximum variety) and the maximum redundancy of the system, and also showed that ambiguity, uncertainty, can be described as a function of noise, or even of time if we consider the effects of time as related to random factors accumulated by the action of the environment.
This ambiguity, which is peculiar to biological self-organizing systems, can manifest itself in a negative way ("destructive ambiguity") with the classic sense of a disorganizing effect, or in a positive way ("ambiguity-producing autonomy"), which acts by increasing the relative autonomy of one part of the system in relation to the other parts, reducing the system's natural redundancy and increasing its informational content.
Atlan [7] developed this self-organizing theory to explain the complexity of biological systems, and Di Biase [ 8,9] to explain the complexity of neural systems and consciousness, as we will see below. Jantsch [15], studying the evolution of the universe, also demonstrated that cosmological evolution is also a process of self-organization, with the micro-evolution of individual systems (holons) co-evolving into better organized macrosystemic collective structures, with a marked reduction in the quantity of these collective systems.
This whole cosmic self-organizing process that culminates in the generation of life and consciousness actually represents a universal expression of a greater acquisition of variety or informational content that is consequent to a reduction in redundancy in the whole system. Seager (16) states that consciousness, self-organization and information are connected at the level of semantic meaning, not at the level of "bit-capacity", and that "since classical information theory is situated at the level of 'bit-capacity', it would be unable to promote the proper connection with consciousness ... and we have to start moving towards a more radical view of the fundamental nature of consciousness, with a move towards a more radical view of information". Seager also reminds us that in the classic two-slit quantum experiment, and in the so-called 'quantum eraser' experiment, what is at stake is not 'bit capacity', but the semantically significant correlation of 'distinct' physical systems, informationally laden in a non-causal way.
Connecting quantum information to consciousness and physics
Wheeler [17] realized the importance of information in such a context. With his genius, he described an elegant informational-participatory universe that is the most brilliant and fundamental model of brain-mind-cosmos interaction ever described in the science of consciousness. With his famous "it from bit" concept, he unites quantum information theory with consciousness and physics: "...every thing - every particle, every force field, even the space-time continuum - derives its function, its meaning, its true existence, entirely - even if in some contexts indirectly - from the yes-or-no question-answering apparatus, binary choices, bits." "It from bit" symbolizes the idea that every item in the physical world has deep down - in a very deep down, in most cases - an immaterial explanation and source; what we call reality arises ultimately from the posing of yes-no questions and the recording of equipment-evoked answers; in short, that all physical things are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe".
In the same article Wheeler [17] gives the example of a photon under observation detected by a photodetector, when we ask the yes-or-no question: "Does the counter register a click during the specified second?". If so, we often say "a photon did it". We know perfectly well that the photon did not exist either before emission or after detection. However, we also have to recognize that any talk of the photon "existing" during the intervening period is just a magnified version of the fact itself, a record. The yes or no that is recorded constitutes an indivisible bit of information." There is a cosmological version of Wheeler's experiment with photons emitted by a distant double quasar which shows that photons interfere with each other, not only when observed in the laboratory, but also when emitted into the cosmos over large time intervals.
A double quasar was observed with its light-image deflected by a gravitational lens formed by a galaxy located about a quarter of the distance from Earth. The additional distance traveled by the photons deflected by this intervening galaxy was fifty thousand light-years more than the distance traveled by those that went the direct way. Despite originating billions of years ago and arriving 50,000 years apart, the photons interfere with each other as if they had been emitted seconds earlier in the laboratory.
Wheeler developed this "it form bit" perspective when studying the unification of quantum gravity theories in black holes, and stated that we should understand quantum information as more fundamental than energy, matter and space-time. This has relevance for studies on consciousness because we also understand consciousness as quantum information at the very moment of its creation, both (consciousness and information) being a fundamental property of the universe just like energy, matter and space-time.
Therefore, in this context we define both quantum information and consciousness as non-local, intrinsic and irreducible properties of the universe capable of generating order, self-organization and complexity, which must be understood with a status equal to energy, matter and space-time, since consciousness, as we have already stated, is quantum information at the very moment of its generation. Doug Matzke [18] also states that we must accept the duality of energy/information for quantum states and consciousness. According to him, "the apparently paradoxical aspects of consciousness become more comprehensible with the adoption of this energy/information duality, just as at the beginning of this century the particle/wave duality was illuminating for understanding physics..." By understanding quantum states as informational systems, the energy/information duality is exposed.
The corresponding nature of quantum space-time supports non-local behavior. Quantum information laws form a consistent network that creates all fields, particles and even space-time.
The concept of non-local quantum information, being as or more fundamental than energy, matter and space-time, underpins not only the Quantum Information Theory described in the early 1990s, but also the Holoinformational Theory of the Unified Field of Consciousness that we propose below connecting "everything above to everything below", and uniting the philosophies of humanity's spiritual traditions and modern quantum physics.
The Cosmic Code
What significantly self-organizes cosmic evolution is the relationship between the physical entropy and non-local quantum-holographic informational content of the universe, through a process in which complexity using pre-existing informational content reaches ever higher levels of organization and variety. Complexity in the universe grows gradually, from the Cosmosphere with gravity and nuclear forces, with the information stored in atomic structures. It intensifies with the emergence of the self-organizing macromolecular systems of the Biosphere, with the information stored in the genetic code of DNA. And it reaches an antientropic state of complexity, and of highly elevated variety and informational content, with the emergence of the Noosphere and the neural code of the mind with the information stored in classical neural networks. But today we know that cosmic evolution doesn't stop there, and also depends on the Consciousnessosphere with its non-local informational code of consciousness-universe interconnection whose information is stored in the quantum-holographic networks of the brain and in the non-local quantum-holographic informational organization of the cosmos.
This universally distributed non-local quantum-holographic information network connects our consciousness to the quantum-holographic cosmos. It is a non-local quantum informational unfolding that self-organizes matter, mind, life and consciousness in a meaningful way, the conceptual framework of which is David Bohm's quantum-holographic theory of the universe[20]. These informational codes, this non-local order transmitted actively, meaningfully, intelligently and instantaneously through all the levels of complexity of the universe, is the very neguentropic self-organizing nature of consciousness-information, a physical and irreducible dimension of the cosmos with a status equal to energy, matter and space-time.
Consciousness and non-locality
By adding a quantum potential to his equations which satisfies the basic equation of quantum physics, the Schrödinger equation, but which is dependent on the shape and not the amplitude of the wave function, Bohm (20) developed a deterministic model in which the quantum potential carries "active information" which "guides" the particle on its way. The quantum potential has unprecedented characteristics because, unlike other forces in nature, it does not decay with distance. This interpretation allows communication between this 'pilot wave' and the particle to take place at a speed greater than that of light, unveiling the quantum paradox of non-locality, i.e. instantaneous causality, which is fundamental to our holoinformational vision of consciousness.
This paradox, which has been exhaustively proven since Alan Aspect's first experiments in the 1980s, reveals the existence of an indivisible underlying cosmic informational unit. Non-local quantum information is a fundamental process in nature, capable of modifying the structure of the universe, since any elementary particle is linked, by means of a quantum potential, to the entire cosmos. For Bohm [21], unlike Bohr, elementary particles do not have a dual wave/particle nature, but are particles all the time, and not just when they are observed. In fact, the particle originates from fluctuations in the global quantum field, and its behavior is determined by the quantum potential, "which carries information about the environment, informing and guiding its movement.
As the information in the potential is very detailed, the resulting trajectory is so extremely complex that it appears chaotic or indeterministic, say Bohm and Peat [22]. Any attempt to measure the particle's properties alters the quantum potential, destroying its information. As John Bell observed [23] "De Broglie-Bohm's idea seems so natural and simple, to solve the wave-particle dilemma in such a clear and natural way, that it is a great mystery... that it has been so widely ignored".
In Bohm's holographic theory [24], since no field organized the implicit order, it was consequently linear and difficult to unfold. But Bohm claims that the implicit order is a wave function, and the superimplicit order or higher informational field, a function of the wave function, i.e. a superondulatory function, which makes the implicit order non-linear, organizing it into complex and relatively stable structures.
In addition, he points out that the holographic model, as a mode of organization of the implicit order, depended on the potential field of quantum information, which lacked the capacity for self-organization and transmission of information, essential for understanding the genesis and development of matter, life and consciousness. The superimplicit order meets this need, "allowing us to understand consciousness, energy and matter as varieties of expression of the same holoinformational order" [Bohm]. Consciousness has been present in the various levels of nature's unfolding since the dawn of creation.
Organisms and Brains are Macroscopic Quantum Systems
In the living world, non-local information is present just as it is on the quantum level and on the cosmic scale. In living organisms, the coordination of functions within them is guaranteed by non-local quantum coherence, as we can see in the instantaneous correlation between parts and molecules and also between the organism and the external environment. This instantaneous quantum information transfer is observed in organic molecules in entangled quantum states (entanglement), in quantum tunneling, in Bose-Einstein condensates, and in superradiant states that occur in brain structures such as microtubules, synapses and cerebrospinal fluid.
According to Erwin Schrödinger in his seminal book What is Life? [25], in living organisms we must replace the concept of mechanical order, which produces order from disorder, with the notion of dynamic order, which produces order from order, complex organization and information. This difference between mechanical and dynamic order, according to Schrödinger himself, was first proposed by Max Planck, who made this distinction in a short paper entitled The Dynamic and Statistical Type of Law (see my paper Self-Organization in Biological Systems[8]). This type of "dynamic" non-local informational order explains living matter, but today we know that it is not based solely on casual mechanical molecular collisions and interactions, but on a comprehensive system of non-local correlations involving even distant parts that would not have time to mix in a mechanical process.
This organic coherence is only possible through the mobilization of energy far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Mae-Wan Ho [26] suggests that the organism maintains itself in a negentropic state through the superposition of a non-dissipative cyclic process with zero entropic equilibrium, and an irreversible dissipative process with entropy production greater than zero. According to her, the coupling of the non-dissipative cyclic loop with the irreversible energy loop frees the living organism from immediate thermodynamic constraints. But how does a self-organizing quantum mind manage to overcome quantum decoherence and maintain a persistent coherent state for a long time at room temperature? Ho [26] has demonstrated that "multiple layers of highly polarized liquid crystalline water molecules form dynamically coherent units with the macromolecules, allowing them to function as quantum molecular energy machines that transform and transfer energy with approximately 100 percent efficiency.
This liquid-crystalline continuum of polarized water and closely associated macromolecules extends throughout the extracellular matrix to the interior of each cell, allowing each cell, ultimately each molecule, to intercommunicate with one another." This process known as quantum superradiance is also occurring all the time in neural microtubules, as demonstrated by Hameroff and Penrose [ ]Dejan Rakovic [27], in the article Quantum-Holographic and Classically-Reduced Neural Networks can Model Psychosomatic Functions shows how quantum-holographic neural networks and classical neural networks can model psychosomatic functions: "The current scientific paradigm considers information processing within the central nervous system as occurring through hierarchically organized and interconnected neural networks. However, it seems that this hierarchy of biological neural networks goes down to the level of the sub-cellular cytoskeleton, being according to some scientists a kind of interface between the neural and quantum levels. At the same time, it was found that in the Feynman propagator version of the Schrödinger equation, the quantum level is described by a mathematical formalism analogous to that of the Hopfield-like quantum-holographic associative neural networks.
The analogy mentioned opens up an additional fundamental question about how the quantum parallel processing level gives rise to the classical parallel processing level, which is a general problem of the relationship between the quantum and classical levels in quantum decoherence theory. The same question is closely related to the fundamental nature of consciousness, whose in-deterministic manifestations of free will and other holistic manifestations of consciousness such as transitional states of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, and consciousness permeating the body - necessarily imply that some manifestations of consciousness must have a deeper quantum origin, with significant psychosomatic implications."
Interconnecting Quantum-Holographic Neural Dynamics with Classical Computational Neural Networks
It is now very well established experimentally that the chlorophyll molecules responsible for the process of photosynthesis, which transforms photons of light into chemical energy in plants, carry out this interconnection with extraordinary efficiency, in around 750 femtoseconds, compared to 1 to 1.5 femtoseconds, which is the frequency of the vibrations of chemical bonds. This is due to the action of a protein called the antenna protein, which binds to the chlorophyll molecule, sustaining the state of quantum coherence and suppressing decoherence by reinducing coherence in the decoherent parts of the chlorophyll molecule [28]. This shows us that the ability to suppress decoherence at room temperature is a common process in nature. Thus, the ability to suppress quantum decoherence should be seen as a natural process in the brain, and it is possible that neurons and glia cells can sustain a quantum coherent state for milliseconds in the complex cellular system and its molecular organization full of protein macromolecules, small molecules, ions and water. We know that in the vicinity of these macromolecules there is ordered water, and that proteins with a cavity in their three-dimensional structure can retain one or a few water molecules by means of hydrogen bonds.
Quantum chemical computing studies have shown that water molecules arranged inside proteins or between two proteins separated by 12 to 16 angstrons allow quantum coherent electron transfer to occur [29]. This quantum coherence can propagate through non-local information transfer in the nervous system and in the body by quantum entanglement and superradiance. As self-organized biological systems these molecular systems have a very high structural and functional redundancy that facilitates non-local interconnection between all parts.
In-formation in Self-Organizing Dissipative Structures
Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine [30,31] developed a self-organizing extension of thermodynamics that demonstrates how the second law can allow new structures to emerge, and indicates the ways in which order can emerge from chaos. This type of self-organization generates dissipative structures that are created and maintained through energy exchanges with the environment in non-equilibrium conditions. These dissipative structures are dependent on a new order, called by Prigogine "order by fluctuations", which corresponds to a "giant fluctuation" stabilized by exchanges with the environment.
In these self-organizing processes, the structure is maintained by means of a dissipation of energy that moves around, simultaneously generating (in-forming) the structure through a continuous process. The more complex the dissipative structure, the more information is needed to maintain its interconnections, making it consequently more vulnerable to internal fluctuations, which means higher potential instability and greater possibilities for reorganization. If the fluctuations are small, the system accommodates them and does not change its organizational structure. If the fluctuations reach a critical size, however, they can cause an imbalance in the system, generating new intra-systemic interactions and reorganizations. "The old patterns interact with each other in new ways, and establish new connections. The parts reorganize into a new whole. The system reaches a higher order" [30]. This thermodynamics of self-organizing dissipative structures elaborated by Prigogine, when applied to the self-organization of brain functioning, allows us to understand the brain as a self-organizing conscious quantum-dissipative computer.
Consciousness, self-organization and In-formation
Pribram [32,40-45] demonstrated that the fields of distributed neural activity in the cerebral cortex are wave interference patterns capable of generating holographic systems when analyzed using Fourier transforms and Gabor's holographic equations. The wave equation of Pribram's neural network is similar to the Schrödinger wave equation of quantum physics with the addition of Bohm's quantum potential. Any elementary field or particle is linked to the entire cosmos through an active non-local quantum information potential and is therefore capable of altering the fundamental quantum-holographic structure of the universe. This In-formation, as Stonier states[33,34], can therefore be understood as a fundamental process of nature, as we have already stated. The "active" non-local information proposed by Bohm organizes the quantum-holographic universe and shows that all of nature is organized in a "meaningful" way.
In our brains, this informational process is both quantum-holistic, based on distributed non-local quantum-holographic neural fields, and classical Newtonian-mechanistic local, with classical neural networks. Thus, as I have been proposing in recent years [Di Biase,11,13], it is a field that is both local and non-local, i.e. holoinformational. This point of view is fundamental to understanding the informational nature of consciousness and intelligence in the universe [12]. Energy, matter, life and consciousness are meaningful activities, intelligent quantum-informational processes, order transmitted through cosmic evolution, originating from a generating non-local quantum informational field, beyond our limits of perception. A plenum universe of non-local quantum informational potential with meaning (with active information) is an intelligent universe functioning as a mind, as Sir James Jeans had already observed. Thus, as consciousness has always been present at all levels of organization in nature, information, energy, matter, life and consciousness cannot be considered as separate entities, and analyzed with a Cartesian-Newtonian fragmentary framework.
In fact, consciousness should be considered a fundamental property of the universe [12,13], just like information, energy, matter and space-time, and should be seen as irreducible non-local quantum information, distributed holistically throughout the cosmos, and, at the same time, as mechanistic Newtonian local information in brains, capable of generating self-organization, complexity, intelligence and evolution. This vision of a holoinformational intelligent "continuum", a fundamental generative order with a quantum-holographic informational creative flow permeating the entire cosmos, allows us to understand the nature of the universe as an indivisible self-organizing intelligent totality.
A kind of universal consciousness unfolding in an infinite holoarchy. Like any non-locally distributed quantum-holographic system, this universal consciousness is distributed non-locally throughout the cosmosphere, in the same way that radio and TV broadcasting is distributed holographically over our heads all over the planet. Our quantum-holographic mind as an active, non-local part of this holographically distributed universal system contains the active in-formation of the entire cosmos indivisible from its origin [Di Biase, 9,10].
Eccles' Interactive Dualism and Pribram's Ontological Monism
Sir John Eccles [35-39] described fine fiber structures in the brain that he called dendrons, made up of synapses and the set of connections formed by dendritic postsynaptic networks, which he postulated could interact with the mental side of brain-mind interaction through units that he called psychons. He proposed that these psychons could operate in the synapses through quantum processes, and with Beck [36] developed an elegant and logical quantum interpretation of synaptic function.
Karl Pribram [44-45], demonstrated that Eccles dendrons form cortical sensory receptive fields, which "like sensory receptive fields can be mapped in terms of waves, or wavelet-like patterns, such as Gabor's Elementary Functions. Dennis Gabor (1946) called these units Information Quanta. The reason for this name is that Gabor used the same mathematics to describe his units that Heisenberg used to describe the units of quantum microphysics. Here they define the structural unity of processes that occur in the material brain. However, Gabor invented his function, not to describe brain processes, but to find the maximum compressibility of a telephone message that could be sent across the Atlantic cable without destroying its intelligibility.
The Gabor function thus describes both a processing unit of the brain and a communication unit. The brain is material, and communication is mental. The same mathematical formulation describes both. The elementary processing structure in Eccles' material dendron is identical to the elementary processing structure of the mental psychon (communication). There is a structural identity in the dual interactive process".
Pribram [44-45] proposes a monist basis for Eccles' dualism, showing that "there is an interactive mind/matter duality that is a 'ground' from which both matter and mind are 'formed' and the 'dual' emerges. This ground functions as a potential reality similar to Heisenberg's potential world. For Pribram, "This flow materializes in space-time... and provides the ontological roots from which our experience of matter as well as mind becomes actualized in space-time."
To illuminate this claim, Pribram relates the following story: "Eugene Wigner once remarked that in quantum physics we no longer have observables (invariants), but only observations. With the question on the tip of my tongue, I asked if this meant that quantum physics is really psychology, expecting a harsh response to my arrogance. Instead, Wigner flashed a happy smile of understanding and replied: "Yes, yes, that's exactly right. If you really want to take the reductionist route, you end up in psychology, not particles. In fact, it's a psychological process, mathematics, that describes the relationships that organize matter.
In a non-trivial sense, today's physics is rooted in both matter and mind. Communication depends on being embodied, instantiated in some kind of material support. This convergence of matter on mind, and mind on matter, lends credence to their common ontological root. My claim is that this root, although limited by measurements in space-time, needs a more fundamental order, a potential order that underlies and transcends space-time. The spectral basis of both matter and communication depicted by the Fourier relation outlines this claim.As the brain has the ability to function in both the quantum-holographic non-local mode and the classical Newtonian space-time local mode, we believe that we are dealing here with some kind of Bohr-like complementarity in the functioning of the central nervous system.
Pribram's holonomic theory of the brain [32] and Bohm's quantum-holographic theory [19], plus Laszlo's akashic field [2], show that we are part of something much vaster than our individual minds. Our mind is a subsystem of a universal hologram, accessing and interpreting this holographic universe. We are fractal holographic harmonic systems continuously interacting with this self-organizing indivisible totality. We are this holoinformational field of consciousness, not observers from outside it. The perspective of external observers generated Chalmers' hard problem and made us lose the sense and 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.
The Unified Field of Consciousness
In this holoinformational model of consciousness, the non-local quantum-informational flow in a continuous holomovement of expansion and retraction between the brain and Bohm's implicate order, is Universal Consciousness self-organizing as the human mind. This non-local quantum-holographic Cosmic Consciousness is the universe itself manifesting itself through our mind, seeing itself through our eyes, becoming aware of itself through our consciousness, interconnecting in an indivisible and participatory holistic way the human brain to all levels of the self-organizing multiverse[46].
Quantum Brain DynamicsExperimental studies by Pribram[42] and other researchers such as Hameroff and Penrose[48], Yassue and Jibu [49,50] confirmed the existence of quantum brain dynamics in neural microtubules, synapses and the molecular organization of cerebrospinal fluid and the matrix of the intracellular environment, revealing the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensates and the occurrence of the Frohlich Effect in these systems. Bose-Einstein condensates consist of atomic particles or, in the case of the Frohlich Effect, biological molecules that assume a high degree of informational alignment, functioning as a highly unified and ordered state, as occurs in lasers and superconductivity. Sir John Eccles' psychons [36,39] also operate in synapses by means of quantum coherence processes. This quantum dynamics shows us that the interaction between Eccles' dendrons (the physical side of the brain) and psychons (the mental side) is not limited to the synaptic cleft, as he put it, but has a much wider distribution throughout the brain. Jibu, Yasue and Pribram[42,49,50] have developed a quantum brain dynamics that is quantum-holographic in nature, or as Pribram prefers, holonomic, based on the concept of logon, i.e. the Gabor wavelet function, and Fourier transforms, but have not extended their ideas beyond the brain.
Based on the research carried out by these authors, we have developed the holoinformational model of consciousness in which the quantum-holographic non-local universe and the quantum-holographic non-local structure of consciousness are conceived as continuously interconnected, constituting a unity, just as in Leibnitz's conception of monads. In his Monadology, Leibnitz states that each monad, like a small mirror, reflects the entire universe. Norbert Wiener also believed in this holographic way of understanding the universe, in which each part contains the information of the whole, as we see in his statement: "This mirroring is best understood as a parallelism, incomplete it is true, between the internal organization of the monad and the organization of the world as a whole. The structure of the microcosm runs parallel to that of the macrocosm (Wiener, Back to Leibnitz).
I believe that the immense interference pattern of the entire universe, incorporating all the phase relationships, in what Bohm calls Implicit Order, means that each organism is a reflection of the entire universe, just like a Leibnitzian monad. Pribram says that, as well as each organism reflecting the universe, it is possible that the universe is reflecting each organism that observes it (personal communication). In my holoinformational vision, which is based on the quantum-holographic concepts of Pribram and Bohm, each consciousness is continuously reflecting the whole and the whole is reflecting each consciousness, by means of a holoinformational flow, and an infinite dynamic holoarchy, which is fractally distributed and self-referential.
Jibu and Yasue's studies [49, 50] on quantum brain dynamics reveal that "brain dynamics consists of quantum brain dynamics (i.e. quantum mode) and classical brain dynamics (i.e. classical mode)" and that "quantum brain dynamics is the fundamental process of the brain based on the quantum field dynamics of the molecular vibrational fields of water molecules and biomolecules." According to them [50], Umesawa introduced into quantum brain dynamics the notion that "the quanta of the molecular vibrational field of biomolecules are corticons, and the quanta of the molecular vibrational field of water molecules are exchange bosons". Quantum coherence can propagate through these vibrational fields of biomolecules and water molecules by means of non-local information transfer, quantum entanglement, and superradiance.
The quantum dissipative brain model is an extension of the dissipative dynamics proposed in 1967 by Ricciardi and Umezawa[51,52]. In addition, the patterns of neuronal excitations can be described by the spontaneous symmetry breaking formalism of Quantum Field Theory. Umezawa[52] states that "In any material in condensed matter physics any particular information is carried by certain ordered patterns maintained by certain long-range correlations and mediated by massless quanta. It seems that this is the only way to memorize any information; memory is an imprinted pattern of order maintained by long-range correlations." In recent years, Amoroso, Rauscher and Kaufman[53,54,55] and Amoroso and Di Biase[10] have been proposing the existence of a highly tuned Anthropic Holographic Multiverse for the generation of life and holoinformational consciousness, which would contain in a holographic-dynamic mode all the information in the universe allowing us, as Einstein dreamed, to know the mind of God.
The wonderful Buddhist metaphor of Indra's Net from the Avatamsaka Sutra[56], written 2,500 years ago, reflects in its poetry the infinite holographic nature of the universe: Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out indefinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificier has hung a single glittering jewel at the net’s every node, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderfull sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewel, so that the process of reflection is infinite
According to Francis Cook [56] this metaphor "shows a Cosmos with an infinite interrelationship between all the parts, each defining and maintaining all the others. The Cosmos is a self-referring, self-maintaining and self-creating organism. It is also non-teleological, because there is no beginning of time, no concept of a creator, and no questioning of the purpose of everything. The universe is conceived as a gift, without hierarchy: it has no center, or perhaps if there is one, it is everywhere."
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