Human kind cannot stand very much reality.     T.S. Eliot

There is no quantum world, there is no deep reality.   Neils Bohr


The site attempts to provide summaries and reviews of books, academic papers, articles, web sites, conferences and any other material relevant to quantum theories of consciousness.

This aspect of consciousness theory is receiving little serious attention at the moment, either in the form of proper discussion or any attempt at experimentation. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that any expression of interest in this area would serve to damage career advancement. Recent evidence of quantum states playing a functional role in organic matter, notably in photosynthetic protein, (Engel et al, 2007, Lee et al, 2007; Sarovar et al, 2009; Collini et al, 2009) and a number of related studies have to a good extent undermined the main argument against quantum consciousness, which is the expected rapid decoherence of quantum features in biological tissues. This development has been largely ignored by mainstream consciousness studies. Mainstream efforts appear to be inceasingly diverted into peripheral areas, which show little likelyhood of producing anything of explanatory value relative to consciousness.

The object of this site is to try and redress this bias, and to encourage free enquiry into quantum consciousness, something which may be stifled by the bureaucratic nature of 21st century science, and the feeling amongst philosophers that they must act as apologists for mainstream ideas.

A compilation of references to academic material dealing with quantum theories of consciousness and in particular experiments and mathematical work that is relevant to is intended to be a feature of the site.

The Introduction/Hard Problem section is intended as a general description of the subject for any users not familiar with either modern theories of consciousness or quantum theory.

Summaries and reviews of papers, articles and books cover most of the main theories of quantum consciousness, including the Penrose/Hameroff Orch OR theory, David Bohm's implicate order, Gustav Bernroider's ion channel theory, Henry Stapp's view of quantum consciousness and the various versions of quantum brain dynamics. There is also a section examining experimental evidence for quantum consciousness, including the recent work on quantum coherence and entanglement in proteins mentioned above. A general section covers papers, articles etc. that are relevant to quantum consciousness, while the Mainstream section deals with conventional ideas on consciousness and rebuttals of quantum consciousness, for instance the ideas of Francis Crick, Christof Koch, Patricia Churchland and Daniel Dennett. Other sections deal with related topics, notably, freewill, quantum computing and cosmology, the last having relevance to some quantum consciousness ideas, such as those of Roger Penrose. The Key Articles section repeats those papers etc. that are considered most important relative to the investigation of qauntum consciousness. There is also a quantum-mind blog. The intention is to constantly add new material as it becomes available.

The most recent additions are listed below, and can be accessed either in the New category or in the permanent categories.

1.) Electrical vibrations of yeast cell membrane  - M. Cifra & J. Pokorny et al  -  added June 29 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 4 and Protein & Coherence  -  Studies of oscillations in living cells

2.) Excitation of vibrations in microtubules in living cells  -  Pokorny, J.  -  added June 25 (under Quantum Evidence 4 and Protein & Coherence)  -  Study argues for the possibility of excitations in microtubules, shielded by ion layer and bound water.

3.) Microtubule super-lattices   -  Stuart Hameroff  -  added June 22 (under Quantum Evidence 4 and Protein & Coherence)  -  Defends Penrose/Hameroff model against Reimers et al 

4.) Coherent intrachain energy migration in a conjugated polymer at room temperature  -  Elizabetta Collini and Gregory Scholes  -  added 12 June 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 3)  -  Extends the concept of protein protected quantum coherence proposed by by the Engel et al and Lee et al experiments.

5.) Coherence dynamics in photosynthesis: Protein protection of excitonic coherence  -  Lee, H. et al  -  added June 8 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 3)  -  Further evidence for quantum coherence in protein

6.) Quantum entanglement in photosynthetic light harvesting complexes  -  added 29 May 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 3)  -  More evidence for quantum coherence and entanglement in biological tissues.

7.) Discussion of whether the internet could become conscious  - added 26 May 2009 (under Quantum Mind Blog)

8.) The reason I chose that one ...  -  Based on Lars Hall & Petter Johansson - added 22 May 2009 (under Freewill 4)  - Attempt to use confabulation to undermine the concept of freewill.

9.) Witness-Consciousness - Miri Albahari - Develops a theory of 'witness conscious', as an observing aspect of the subject.

10.) Whole Brain  - based on Raphael Gaillard  -  added 30 March 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 3) - Evidence for synchrony in brain related to conscious activity.

11.) Reconstrual of "Free Will" from the agentic persepctive of social cognitive theory  -  Albert Bandura  -  added 27 March 2009 (under Freewill 4)  -  Attacks the methodology of the classic studies on which the mainstream rejection of the concept of free will is based.

12.) Organism and Machine  -  Michael Denton  -  added 3 March 2009 (under Neuroscience 2)  -  Argues the protein and large elements in living tissue are designed in a totally different way from machines.

13.) Free will, consciousness and cultured animals  -  Roy Baumeister  - added 25 February 2009 (under Freewill 3) - argues for the involvement of free will in inhibiting impulses and rational choice of options supported by an energy consuming process in the brain. 



Other recent reviews:
1.) The Executive Brain - Goldberg, E. - added 8 May 2009 (under Mainstream 3) 2.) Some observations on the psychology of thinking about free will - Daniel Dennett  -  added 17 May 2009 (under Freewill 4) (3.)  The Continuity of Mind  -  Spivey, M.  -  added 6 April 2009 (under Mainstream 8)  (4.)  Are We Free? Psychology and Freewill  -  added 23 March 2009 (under Freewill 4)  (5.) The Hazards of Claiming to Have Solved the Hard Problem of Free Will  (6.) Determined and Free   -   Myers, D.  -  added 27 February 2009 (under Freewill 3)  (7.) Making up the Mind  -  Chris Frith  -  added 14 April 2009 (under Mainstream 8)  (8.) Free Will is Un-Natural  -  John Bargh  - added 3 April 2009 (under Freewill 4)  (9.) How can psychology contribute to the freewill debate?  -  Nichols, S.  -  added 24 February 2009 (under Freewill 3)  (10.) The Unique Nature of Cosmology  -  George Ellis  -  added 17 February 2009 (under Cosmology 2)  (11.) A way for quantum benefits to survive after entanglement ends  -  based on Seth Lloyd  -  added 27 January 2009 -  (under Quantum Evidence: 3)  (12.) Are We Spiritual Machines? & The Singularity is Near  -  Ray Kurzweil  -  added 13 March 2009 (13.)Emotions Explained  -  Edmund Rolls  -  added 19 January 2009 - (under Emotions)  (14.) Affective Neuroscience  -  Jaak Panksepp  -  added 4 February 2009 (under Emotions) (15.) Towards understanding the origin of genetic languages  -  Apoorva Patel  -  added 16 January 2009 - (under Origins of Life) (16.) Quantum coherence and the search for the first replicator  - Jim Al-Khalili & Johnjoe McFadden  - added 12 January 2009 - (under Origins of Life) (17.) Quantum mechanics and emergence - Seth Lloyd - added 9 January 2009 (under Origins of Life) (18.) Evidence for coherent proton tunnelling - Horsewil - added 2 January 2009  (under Quantum Evidence 3) (19.) New insights into enzyme catalysis - Scrutton - added 2 January 2009 (under Quantum Evidence 3)  (20.) Memory depends on the cytoskeleton - Mershin & Nanopoulos  - added 29 December 2008 (under Quantum Evidence)


If you would like to contact us with suggestions comments or material relevant to this site or quantum consciousness generally please e: mail us at ingeborg@blueyonder.co.uk. We will attempt to reply and may post some material if there is no objection to that.