OM

At the risk of dating myself, think back to 1968 when the Beatles fell under the spell of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and took up Transcendental Meditation. I remember those days, and with it memories of my own long-haired youth sitting in lotus position breathing deeply and chanting the sacred mantra OM as I was transported to another level of consciousness. No, seriously that never happened, but I do recall that many of my generation at least tried TM or some other means--let us just say chemicals to achieve enlightenment and be one with the universe. Well, it turns out that maybe that wasn't just another flirtation with eastern mysticism.

A new work by Nobel Prize winning physicist, Roger Penrose, builds on a theory first advanced by an anesthesiologist, Dr. Stuart Hamerhoff, who advanced the idea that consciousness is a quantum process. For those of you who may not recall exactly what that means, a quantum process, in this case the generation of a quantum wave—describes an interaction involving the smallest of particles—think subatomic. And a quantum wave—as the name suggests describes the state of those particles in the context of time and space. Got it? Well, this is truly complex stuff so dumbing it down to the level I can understand just think of a quantum wave as the movement of infinitesimally small bits of matter moving and interacting through time and space.

If you are still with me, hang in there through one more mind twisting explanation. If you remember a few previous posts about quantum mechanics you know that one of the mysterious properties of a quantum state is superposition—the ability of a quantum particle to be in more than a single place at one time, an ability I don’t mind adding I would find highly useful. So, a quantum particle isn’t governed by our notions of existence—it can be in two or more places simultaneously and it can entangle --or interact with other particles affecting their state of being even as it is affected by them. While it is hard to imagine this we have proof of it and the superposition property of quantum particles has already been harnessed in the design of quantum computers. There is a lot more to it—but--tongue in cheek-- time, space and the reader's potential boredom limit me.

Now, back to Drs. Hamerhoff and Penrose. In his clinical work, the good doctor H. investigated microtubules, part of the brain’s cellular structure. Hamerhoff’s theory is that these microtubules act as a conduit for a quantum process—a quantum wave that we call consciousness. Building on this, Hamerhoff and Penrose believe that in a heightened state of consciousness the quantum particles moving through our brains could interact with other quantum particles outside of and beyond the brain—theoretically anywhere in the universe. In other words, it might indeed be possible to connect to the universe by entering a state of meditation, or through the use of certain mind altering substances, as some of my generation have. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Now before we declare this theory, one for which there is not, as of yet, any actual evidence or proof, you should know that the scientific community is far from united in support of it. For one thing, although I casually threw around quantum waves and particles as if they were interchangeable—the fact is that it is only the case under certain circumstances. So even if consciousness is a quantum process—as it may very well be, there are still some conditions to parsing particles out of that wave—not least of which are that it requires extreme cold and highly controlled conditions, neither of which exist in the brain. All of which would seem to put a damper on the entire consciousness connecting to the Universe thing.

But as we have learned about the quantum world it just won’t stay still, it is defiantly unpredictable and refuses to obey the laws that govern –well- non-quantum things. Such is the case with quantum biology. Yes, there is such a thing. In fact, we can observe quantum biology at work all around us. The process we know as photosynthesis by which plants store energy originating in the form of light and convert it into the chemical chlorophyll, is a perfect example of quantum biology at work.

In order for plants to use light energy they must convert its particles and store that energy —but to do that they need a way to channel it through their complex structure before the energy becomes dissipated. Think of those particles—called excitons, as a UPS driver trying to plan the fastest way to get to an address in a city he's never been in before without a map or GPS. The number of possible routes the excitons could take are endless, and the clock is ticking before the energy they are trying to deliver runs out. The only way to do it is by harnessing that characteristic of the quantum world, superposition. Rather than trying to suss out the one and only fastest way to get to an energy store, excitons try every possible route all at once, which they can do, as we have learned, because quantum particles can be in many places at the same time.

Inspired by this idea, Dr. Jack Tuszynski, an oncologist and physicist, conducted some simulations of that process in the brain by shining ultraviolet light through a microtubule. He was mimicking the transmission process that Drs. Hamerhoff and Penrose had hypothesized. He wondered if the brain worked in a similar fashion to plants. In other words, substitute light in the form of quantum particles for consciousness. If that were possible, he reasoned, there should be a response to the ultraviolet light that was measurable. He expected it to be brief, but to his amazement, in 22 independent experiments the response lasted more than 5 nanoseconds—an interval thousands of times longer than would be needed to perform a biological function.

Pretty exciting—but what comes next will blow your mind. Another team of scientists have replicated these experiments with every day visible light and they got results that lasted even longer, The light –substituting for the energy in the brain –in the form of particles transmitted through microtubules, was retransmitted at the other end for periods lasting as long as seconds, a ridiculously long interval in subatomic terms.

While these experiments do not prove the theory is 100% correct, they do open the door to understanding a lot more about how thought can become palpable beyond the confines of our brains. As for connecting with the universe, speculation is that like us the universe is composed of quantum particles each moving in its own trajectory, a kind of massive fractal geometric traffic pattern of infinite entities—all following their own path, entangling and interacting at a scale we can only imagine.

It might explain our sense that there are other selves—each following their own trajectory, with whose particle waves we become entangled from time to time, sensing their consciousness if only for a brief second. We may not understand what consciousness is, yet—but it is possible we are on the cusp of understanding a great deal more about how it operates. In the meantime, just breathe deeply and chant OM.