Brenda J. Dunne

On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with application to anomalous phenomena

Theoretical explication of a growing body of empirical data on consciousness-related anomalous phenomena is unlikely to be achieved in terms of known physical processes. Rather, it will first be necessary to formulate the basic role of consciousness in the definition of reality before such anomalous experience can adequately be represented. This paper takes the position that reality is constituted only in the interaction of consciousness with its environment, and therefore that any scheme of conceptual organization developed to represent that reality must reflect the processes of consciousness as well as those of its environment. In this spirit, the concepts and formalisms of elementary quantum mechanics, as originally proposed to explain anomalous atomic-scale physical phenomena, are appropriated via metaphor to represent the general characteristics of consciousness interacting with any environment. More specifically, if consciousness is represented by a quantum mechanical wave function, and its environment by an appropriate potential profile, Schrödinger wave mechanics defines eigenfunctions and eigenvalues that can be associated with the cognitive and emotional experiences of that consciousness in that environment. To articulate this metaphor it is necessary to associate certain aspects of the formalism, such as the coordinate system, the quantum numbers, and even the metric itself, with various impressionistic descriptors of consciousness, such as its intensity, perspective, approach/avoidance attitude, balance between cognitive and emotional activity, and receptive/assertive disposition. With these established, a number of the generic features of quantum mechanics, such as the wave/particle duality, and the uncertainty, indistinguishability, and exclusion principles, display metaphoric relevance to familiar individual and collective experiences. Similarly, such traditional quantum theoretic exercises as the central force field and atomic structure, covalent molecular bonds, barrier penetration, and quantum statistical collective behavior become useful analogies for representation of a variety of consciousness experiences, both normal and anomalous, and for the design of experiments to study these systematically.

On the Quantum Mechanics of Consciousness, with Application to Anomalous Phenomena

Theoretical explication of a growing body of empirical data on consciousness-related anomalous phenomena is unlikely to be achieved in terms of known physical processes. Rather, it will first be necessary to formulate the basic role of consciousness in the definition of reality before such anomalous experience can adequately be represented. This paper takes the position that reality is constituted only in the interaction of consciousness with its environment, and therefore that any scheme of conceptual organization developed to represent that reality must reflect the processes of consciousness as well as those of its environment. In this spirit, the concepts and formalisms of elementary quantum mechanics, as originally proposed to explain anomalous atomic-scale physical phenomena, are appropriated via metaphor to represent the general characteristics of consciousness interacting with any environment. More specifically, if consciousness is represented by a quantum mechanical wave function, and its environment by an appropriate potential profile, Schrodinger wave mechanics defines eigenfunctions and eigenvalues that can be associated with the cognitive and emotional experiences of that consciousness in that environment. To articulate this metaphor it is necessary to associate certain aspects of the formalism, such as the coordinate system, the quantum numbers, and even the metric itself, with various impressionistic descriptors of consciousness, such as its intensity, perspective, approach/avoidance attitude, balance between cognitive and emotional activity, and receptive/assertive disposition. With these established, a number of the generic features of quantum mechanics, such as the wave/particle duality, and the uncertainty, indistinguishability, and exclusion principles, display metaphoric relevance to familiar individual and collective experiences. Similarly, such traditional quantum theoretic exercises as the central force field and atomic structure, covalent molecular bonds, barrier penetration, and quantum statistical collective behavior become useful analogies for representation of a variety of consciousness experiences, both normal and anomalous, and for the design of experiments to study these systematically.

ENDOPHYSICAL MODELS BASED ON EMPIRICAL DATA

Any proposed endophysical models need to acknowledge a number of subjective correlates that have been well established in such objectively quantifiable experimental contexts as anomalous human/machine interactions and remote perception information acquisition. Most notable of these factors are conscious and unconscious intention; gender disparities; serial position effects; intrinsic uncertainties; elusive replicability; and emotional resonance between the participants and the devices, process, and tasks. Perhaps even more pertinent are the insensitivities of the anomalous effects to spatial and temporal separations of the participants form the physical targets. Inclusion of subjective coordinates in the models, and exclusion of physical distance and time, raise formidable issues of specification, quantification, and dynamical formulation from both the physical and psychological perspectives. A few primitive examples of possible approaches are presented.

On the Role of Consciousness in Random Physical Processes

Extensive data from a variety of man/machine experiments indicate that human operators can influence random device output distributions in accordance with pre-stated intentions. Deviations of these output distribution mean values from theoretical expectations or calibration data accumulate in individually characteristic and repli- cable patterns of achievement, many of which achieve high statistical significance. Despite wide variations in individual performance, the composite data base for 33 operators also departs substantially from chance expectation. Histograms of the deviations achieved in 87 separate experimental series confirm the significant mean shifts in the intended directions, and in addition distribute with greater than chance variance. In contrast, the histogram of baseline deviations, obtained under null intentions of the operators, centers on the appropriate chance mean, but with a variance considerably smaller than chance. When all such baseline and directional mean deviations are combined in an appropriately balanced mixture, a normal chance histogram is reconstituted. Such behavior raises the possibility that the basic combinatorial processes undergirding classical or quantum statistical mechanics may reflect, at least to a marginal degree, some processes of human consciousness. This hypothesis, along with the empirical data on which it is based, is consistent with a quantum wave mechanical model of the interactions of consciousness with its physical environment that predicts experiential eigenfunctions indexed by appropriate quantum numbers of both the consciousness and the physical system, and influenced by the degree of resonance between them, in much the same fashion as the Heitler-London treatment of molecular bonds.

The Role of Consciousness in Physical Reality

Extensive data from a variety of man/machine experiments indicate that human operators can influence normally random output distributions in accordance with pre-stated intentions. Deviations from well-behaved calibration data and theoretical expectations accumulate in individually characteristic and replicable patterns of achievement, many of which attain high statistical significance. These anomalies are not explicable by established physical mechanisms, suggesting that some extension of theory to acknowledge the role of consciousness in such interactions may be required. The proposed model represents consciousness as a quantum mechanical wave function confined in an environmental potential well. The “atomic” and “molecular” eigenfunctions then represent “probabilities-of-experience” in the prevailing situations. To the extent that a consciousness metric can be identified, the model is found useful in interpretation of the man/machine anomalies, and could be extended to other anomalous and normal interactions as well.