An EM/Quantum Field Theory of Consciousness
CEMI and Coherence Fields
CEMI (Conscious Electromagnetic Information) theory claims synchronous neuron firing generates strong electromagnetic fields which build up such that even further neurons are activated via an amplifying feedback loop. Upon reaching a sufficiently robust level within relatively large regions of the brain, EM fields can graduate to CEMI fields, integrating brain matter into the substance of fully conscious awareness. Johnjoe McFadden, the originator of this theory, seems to imply that this EM field’s radiation plays a pivotal role in producing qualitative experience within the brain’s matter, and this radiation differs considerably depending on the quantity and kind of neurons which are firing in synchrony, giving rise to the large variety in percepts observed.
The following is my similar “coherence field” theory: the binding mechanism closely associated with radiation amongst the brain’s EM field varies primarily with respect to the amount of synchronous electrical potential involved in generating it, more indirectly due to the particular structure of neurons which produce it. This EM field is the result of relatively uniform types of electrical gradient mediated by ion channels etc., integrating brain matter in consort with the field’s radiative properties. The brain’s diverse subjectivity stems from the way atoms in biochemical pathways superposition with each other and with radiation to form percepts such as sights, sounds, scents, etc. This may actually consist in dual binding mechanisms: EM field phase locking between neural networks as induced somewhat remotely by fluctuating electric charges, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and superposition between EM radiation and biochemical arrays which produces percepts by wave and wavicle blending. A hypothesis is that the many nodes of superposed photonic and atomic fields, as waves of conventional matter, are capable of responding to further types of field phenomena, more or less nonlocal in causation, which have not yet been substantially characterized by science.
Both of these theories might have an aspect of the truth. Perhaps consciousness consists in gradations of more or less CEMI-type fields depending on brain region, with high-level CEMI awareness centered in particular (though perhaps somewhat roving) places within the brain, so that for instance the ability of the brain to register hyperconscious mental images is a separate process from inducement of the fully attentive optical field, while each having distinctive CEMI-like properties, though the binding capacity of action potential-induced electromagnetism, radiation, etc. viewed in its entirety exists by way of a relatively simple duality of mechanisms responsible for consciousness’ stability in the presence of fluctuating stimuli, uniting neural networks, radiative/biomolecular fields and coherence fields in general as a perceptual mind.
So the field of consciousness is somewhat particularized into peak awareness in line with CEMI theory, though not enough for even human agents to introspect the mind with a huge amount of resolution, but this of course can vary between individuals. Electromagnetism and EM radiation participate in coordinating and binding diverse percepts (specially adapted arrays of superposition amongst entanglement) and neural networks within a single matrix of mind, the integrated “will” and “what it is like” to experience existence, because the brain’s coherence field is rather functionally homogeneous and economical in its fundamental mechanisms of synthesis. I would claim that due to similarities between the tissues and cells of many species, there is probably a “what it is like” to be an insect, maybe even a bacterium, especially in the presence of relatively strong electromagnetic forces from even external origins. Lower introspective resolution does not imply a lack of perception and feeling, and higher introspective resolution can readily cooccur with some perceptual deficits. I suppose this is contra the perspective of materialistic determinism or “objectification” commonly directed towards animals or the disabled.
Maybe neuron function specifically can be differentiated into more, less, and majority non-CEMI processes, yet all nonetheless synchronized and bound together within a relatively stable electromagnetic matrix. Are CEMI mechanisms an especially accentuated instance of less self-aware but likewise conscious EM and radiative field effects operating globally within the brain? This would explain the serial (nonparallel) processing characteristic of full awareness, as a relatively localized and disjuncted interruption of the brain’s global field by sufficiently strong, “CEMI” fields, the radiation of which destructively interferes with radiation that surrounds them. An interesting inquiry would be as to where unmistakably CEMI-level fields are located within the brain. Could the CEMI centers be wherever fMRI indicates blood flow is particularly concentrated, or even more localized than that? Do sources of EM radiation, including those of CEMI fields, bypass neurons somewhat and interact directly, maybe as a sort of nested, morphing pattern?
The issue of how certain quantumlike mechanisms such as superpositions within molecules might avoid thermodynamic decoherence is a pertinent matter in this context. Maybe some combination of cytoskeletal fibers, membranes, and specially adapted biochemical pathways that perhaps resemble photosynthetic reaction center complexes in their quantum flexibility might explain it. Is superposition much more pervasive than conventional atomic theory suggests, perhaps even a property consonant in some measure with the fundamental structure of solutions despite heat entropy, with postulated biochemical pathway involvement in the constitution of qualitative percepts being distinguished by degree more than kind?
Provided superposition is common in the brain and elsewhere, the quantity of possible mechanisms available to perception is staggering. This could probably be a new scientific “field”.
To summarize:
a. the strong EM field of the brain is a global substrate largely responsible for integrating cognition
b. biochemical pathways blend or “superposition” into the EM radiation of this field to participate in forming percepts
c. CEMI fields are a primary source of full conscious awareness as especially synchronized neural networks, and ultraconcentrated radiative/biochemical blending within this type of field generates the perceptual substance of intentional attentiveness or “will”, whether visual, verbal etc.
Brain Structures Involved in Generating CEMI Fields
Neurons evince dendritic potentials in addition to axon potentials, and each soma (cell body) is attached to numerous dendrites. Could amplification of a radiative/biochemical/EM field to CEMI levels be the result of large exponential increase in the quantity of activated dendrite potentials as wired-together neurons synapse synchronously? Do processes within axons and cell bodies also somehow participate in more or less conscious EM fields?
Does a feeling of consciously “straining” result from CEMI fields maxing out their capacity to activate dendritic potentials and perhaps further neuronal biochemistry, a sort of smoothly wavelike swelling that strives to bring more of the unconscious into the sphere of full conscious awareness, rather than a crisply particularate phenomenon?
Some evidence that CEMI fields are orchestrated by the limbic system:
The limbic system is the oldest portion of the brain distinctive to more highly developed vertebrates, suggesting that this might be the hub of stream of consciousness (qualitatively robust images, sounds etc.).
Structures of the limbic system are densely packed together in the core of the brain, making massive amounts of synesthesia possible due to both close proximities and also numerous white matter connections to various distant grey matter regions with their more saturating (less impeded by myelin) CEMI-type radiative/biochemical/EM fields, so that rats smelling in stereo, dogs generating mental images in association with smells, humans visualizing sounds etc. are not difficult to account for.
If the limbic system is the locus of stream of consciousness, it is core to qualitative perception in addition to its role in processing and routing sensory or motor signals, and its location at the center of the brain would maximally protect this essential role in subjectivity from damage.
The inquiry might then be into what regions, primarily within grey matter, participate in producing stream of intentional consciousness via CEMI fields, also how these most substantially CEMI regions are connected and thus coordinated. For instance, the dorsal and ventral visual pathways could be integrated by action potentials of equivalent duration running both ways between them such that CEMI field properties of vision in these separate portions of the brain may, in conjunction with grey matter fields of the limbic system and additional coherence field phenomena, generate a synchronous, perhaps largely permeating field array. Research along these lines could enable science to solve the binding problem.
This might explain why the brain is composed of white and grey matter to begin with. Myelin that coats most axons is white to reflect as much light as possible, preventing attenuation of intensity as this light radiates and thus optimizing the mechanisms of percept generation. Grey matter (the rest of the neuron: cell body, dendrites, axon terminal, and perhaps matter internal to the axon) is darkened by structures which absorb light during radiative/biochemical binding.
