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Quantum-Informational Holographic Model of Consciousness

Alfredo Pereira Jr

Tuesday, 26 Aug 2008 02:29 UTC

[Text written by Francisco di Biasi]

I present here a quantum-informational holographic model of brain-conscious-universe
interaction based on the holonomic neural network model of Karl Pribram [1-9] and relying
on the ontological interpretation of quantum theory developed by David Bohm 10, with
extended nonlocal properties of the quantum field as described by Hiroomi Umezawa 11.
weconsider this model an extension of the interactive dualism developed by Sir John Eccles
[12-16] and as extended by Richard Amoroso [17-20] and in this volume. Eccles’ idea of an
interconnection between brain and spirit by means of quantum microsites named dendrons
(bundles of nerve dendrites) that couple to psychons, (Eccles philosophical construct of mind
that interacted with or coupled to brain dendrons.)has deeply influenced the development of
our conception of consciousness. I propose a dynamic concept of consciousness seen as a
holoinformational flux interconnecting holonomic informational Quantum Brain Dynamics
(QBD) [21-22], with the quantum informational holographic nature of the universe [23-25].
This self-organizing flux is generated by a holographic mode of neuronal information that
can be optimized through practices of deep meditation, prayer, and other states of higher
consciousness, the quantum potential (In Bohm’s ontological interpretation of quantum
theo ry a guidance principle (the de Broglie pilot wave) was introduced to ‘steer’ evolution of
the wave function.) which may effect the coherence of cerebral waves 26.
Brain mapping studies performed during the occurrence of these harmonic states have
shown a highly synchronized and perfectly ordered spec tral array of brain waves that form
unique harmonic waves, as if all frequencies of all neurons from all cerebral centers played
the same symphony. This highly coherent brain state generates the nonlocal holographic
informational cortical field of consciousness interconnecting the human brain and the
holographic cosmos [10,23-25]. The comprehension of this holonomic quantum
informational nature of brain-consciousness-universe interconnectedness allows us to solve
the historic mind-matter Cartesian hard problem [27-30], unifying science, philosophy, and
spiritual traditions in an expanded transdisciplinary, holistic, paradigm. In this new
cosmovision, consciousness and transpersonal phenomena becomes parts of science and of
the very holoinformational nature of the universe 30.
In this holoinformational cosmovision brain and universe are conceived as quantumholographic-informational systems interconnected by an instantaneous universal nonlocal holoinformational flux.
This instantaneous holoinformational brain-cosmos dynamics is based on three pillars of modern science:
1) The holographic neural network processing of brain systems described by neuroscientist
Karl Pribram [1-9].
2) The quantum-holographic theory of the universe developed by physicist David Bohm 10.
3) The quantum principle of nonlocality developed by physicist Hiroomi Umezawa, in his
theory of the quantum field 11.
Holographic Neural Networks
Holographic systems can generate three-dimensional virtual images.
The virtual image or hologram is created when a laser falls upon an object and reflects on a
plate and a second laser or rectilinear reflected beam falls on this plate generating a mix of
the waves from the two beams. This wave interference pattern stores all the information
about the form and volume of the object, and when it is reflected it generates a threedimensional
image of the object in space. The relevancy for us is that we can prove
mathematically and experimentally that in holographic systems information about the whole
system is distributed in each part of the system. If we break the holographic plate, each part
of it will display the entire three-dimensional image of the object in space, showing us that in
holographic systems the whole is in the parts as each part is in the whole.
These holographic transformations form spacetime order in a spectral dimension of
frequencies the description of which is dependent on the pioneering mathematical
formulations first described by a concept called monads developed by Leibniz. In the
Twentieth Century Dennis Gabor described the mathematical principles of holography,
winning him a Nobel Prize. The mathematical formulations that describe the harmonic curve
resulting from the interference pattern of waves are called Fourier transformations, after the
18th century French mathematician that described it. Gabor applied Fourier transformations
to the creation of the hologram showing how Fourier transforms of the interference pattern
can be used to rebuild the virtual image of the object by the application of the inverse
process. Gabor showed that from a dimension of frequencies objects in spacetime can be
rebuilt in a virtual form!!
.
Karl Pribram has demonstrated with his holonomic theory of brain dynamics that the cerebral
cortex is the site of a holographic information process he calls a multiplex neural hologram
that is dependent on local circuits of neurons without long fibers that do not transmit ordinary
nervous impulses. “These neurons function in the undulatory mode and are above all
responsible by the horizontal layer connections of the neural tissue where holographic
interference patterns can be built” 3.
The neural hologram is build by the interaction of the electromagnetic fields of the
neurons similarly to the interaction of sound waves in a piano. When a piano is played the
keys strike the strings generating a vibrational standing wave between the two ends of the
string, creating an interference pattern (This interference can be destructive or constructive).
Nodes of constructive interference, of these sound frequencies, create the harmony or
harmonics that are the notes making up the music we listen to. Pribram has demonstrated that
a similar process is continuously occurring in the cerebral cortex by means of the
interpenetration of the electromagnetic fields of the adjacent cortical neuro ns, generating a
harmonic field. According to Pribram’s model his harmonic electromagnetic field distributed
in the cerebral cortex, holographically stores and encodes a huge information field
responsible for the emergence of memory and consciousness. As the music is not in the piano
but in the resonating field that surrounds it, so our memories and consciousness are not in the
brain, but in the holographic information field that surrounds it.
Pribram’s neural wave equation, 3 describing holographic neural network processing is
similar to the Schrödinger wave equation of quantum theory with the addition of the de
Broglie-Bohm Quantum Potential. This is not coincidental and opens the possibility of
holographic interaction between receptive fields in the cortex with the holographic quantum
universe described by David Bohm. This new holographic paradigm allows us to rethink the
manner in which information processing occurs in the nervous system. In this context,
Pribram’s quantum holonomic theory of brain function is one of the most brilliant and
revolutionary contribution to neuroscience in the 100 years since the initial studies of
Sherington!
The Holographic Conscious Multiiverse (HCM)
The mathematical formulations that describe the harmonic slope resulting from wave
interference are Fourier transformations that Dennis Gabor applied to the development of the
hologram, enriching it by the application of the inverse process, a model in which the
interference pattern rebuilds the object in a virtual image. In other words, from the spectral
dimension of frequency one can reconstruct mathematically and experimentally the object in
spacetime dimensions!
This holographic organization mode is also what Bohm applied to quantum theory to
develop his holographic quantum theory of the universe. In Bohm’s universe model, space
and time are mixed, “folded” in to a dimension of frequencies that is an implicit hidden order
without spacetime relations. In this field of frequencies dimensional fluctuations occur, more
intense “undulations” like holographic patterns, to build a spacetime dimension. This explicit
order is our manifest universe. According to Bohm 15:
In the implicate order everything is folded into everything. But it’s important to note here
that the whole universe, is in principle enfolded into each part actively through the
holomovement, as well as the parts. Now this means that the dynamic activity-internal and
external- which is fundamental for what each part is, is based on its enfoldment of all the
rest, including the whole universe. But of course, each part may unfold others in different
degrees and ways. That is, they are not all enfolded equally in each part. But the basic
principle of enfoldment in the whole, is not thereby denied. Therefore enfoldment is not
merely superficial or passive but, we emphasize again, that each part is in a fundamental
sense internally related in its basic activities to the whole and to all the other parts. The
mechanistic idea of external relation as fundamental, is therefore denied. Of course such
relationships are still considered to be real, but of secondary significance. That is, we can
get approximations to a mechanistic behavior out of this. That is to say, the order of the
world, as a structure of things that is basically external to each other, comes as secondary
and emerges from the deeper implicate order.
Quantum Brain Dynamics
Experimental research developed by Pribram and other consciousness researchers like
Hameroff 33 and Penrose 34, Jibu and Yassue, confirm the existence of a Quantum Brain Dynamics in neural microtubules, in synapses and in the molecular organization of the
cerebrospinal fluid. This Quantum Brain Dynamics can generate Bose-Einstein condensates
and the Fröhlich Effect. Bose-Einstein condensates consist of atomic particles, or in the case
of the Fröhlich Effect biological molecules, that can assume a high level of coherent
alignment, functioning as a highly ordered and unified informational state, as seen in lasers
and superconductivity. These quantum dynamics show us that the interaction process
between dendrons and psychons, described by Eccles, are not limited to the synaptic cleft, as
stated by Eccles, but a much wider embodiment throughout the who le brain. Like Pribram
and Amoroso, wesee this not as a contradiction but as a natural extension of Eccles ideas.
We expanded our conjecture that the interconnectedness between brain and cosmos is an
instantaneous nonlocal connection to the concept of a holoinformational flux, from which
both mind and matter are in-formed. This resembles Bohm’s holomovement. In this new
concept, quantum holographic brain dynamic patterns are conceived as an active part of the
universal quantum-holographic informational field, and capable of generating an
informational field interconnection that is simultaneously nonlocal (quantum-holistic) and
local (Newtonian-mechanistic), i.e., holoinformational. Taking yet in consideration the basic
mathematical property of holographic systems in which the information of the whole system
is distributed in each part of the system, plus Bohm’s holographic quantum physics data, and
the experimental data of the holonomic theory of Pribram, we propose that this universal
interconnectedness could permit us to access all the information [35-37] codified in the wave
interference patterns existing in all the universe since its origin. The quantumholoinformational
nature of the universe interconnects each part, each brain-consciousness,
with all the information stored in the holographic patterns distributed in the whole cosmos, in
an indivisible irreducible informational cosmic unity [38-40].
As a consciousness exercise, analogous to Einstein’s thought experiments, we could
compare this universal informational interconnectedness with the following metaphoric
quotations from various spiritual traditions: As above so below (Alchemy). All that is outside
is inside (Upanishads). The father is inside us (Christianity). As in the earth so in the heavens
(Christianity). This universal interconnectedness could be perfectly understood as a Cosmic
Holographic Consciousness.
Consciousness in this conception is the holoinformational flux that permits the interaction
of the holonomic informational Quantum Brain Dynamics – that we can consider as extended
dendrons – with the quantum-holographic nature of the universe, that we can view as an
extended cosmic psychon.
As Pribram states, as sensory receptive fields dendrons can be mapped in terms of Gabor’s
Elementary Functions or wavelet-like patterns. Gabor called these unities Quanta of
Information, because he used the same mathematics to describe it as Heisenberg did in
describing units of quantum physics.
Yet Pribram shows: “They define the unit structure of processes occurring 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 over the Atlantic Cable without
destroying its intelligibility. The Gabor function thus describes both a unit of brain
processing and a unit of communication. Brain is material, communication is mental. The
same mathematical formulation describes both. The elementary structure of processing in
Eccles material dendron is identical to the elementary structure of processing of a mental
(communication) psychon. There is a structural identity to the dual interactive process” 3.
Highly Harmonic Synchronized Brain States
Through practices of deep meditation, prayer, and others states of higher consciousness that
elevates the coherence of cerebral waves, this universal interconnectedness becomes
expanded by synchronizing the functioning of the cerebral hemispheres and unleashing a
highly coherent brain state that optimizes the holographic treatment of neuronal information.
In brain mapping studies this highly synchronized harmonic state shows brain waves highly
synchronized and perfectly ordered, in a unique harmonic wave, as if all frequencies of all
neurons from all cerebral centers played the same symphony. In our concept this highly
harmonic synchronized state generates a nonlocal holographic informational cortical field
creating a holoinformational flux of consciousness interconnecting the human mind with the
Holographic Cosmic Consciousness.
Bibliography
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    • DearFrancisco:

      Your dualism is interesting becuse it is not anti-scientific.
      My question is if consciousness is the interference pattern itself (Phibram´s immanentist view), or if interference patterns are just a channel of communication of a material system (the brain/body) with an immaterial conscious spirit (Eccles’ view).
      Philosophically, these positions seem to conflict with each other, like Aristotle relatively to his master, Plato, or Spinoza relatively to his master, Descartes!

      Best Regards,

      Alfredo

    • Hi Alfredo

      I think that Pribram’s model is only part of the real stuff as you have already suspected.
      If we compare my model with the hologram model we can put that our universe is the hologram, the holographic plate( the “film”) is the interference pattern, the frequence domain of Bohm’s implicit order. The real object that reflects the hologram could be the superimplicit order as Bohm put it, that in my opinion must be a holoinformational (spiritual?) domain that made us like his image.
      As above so below.
      Best
      Francisco

    • Dear Francisco:

      The reinterpretation of ancient belief systems and religions in the framework of Bohm’s quantum theory is a fascinating subject.
      My guess is that this approach leads to a worldview similar to Spinoza’s. The spiritual domain is not conceived as being outside nature, but as an emergence from natural processes.
      In this sense, Feuerbach was not wrong when he stated that men created God.
      Do you know the book “God in Us”, by Anthony Freeman (one of the editors of the Journal of Consciousness Studies)? In my intepretation, this book is a description of a process of questioning the concept of a transcedent God and looking for an immanentist concept. However, in your proposal it seems to me that you are still atteched to the traditional view of a transcendent God who created the world and human beings like His image. Am I wrong?

      Best

      Alfredo

    • Hi Alfredo and All
      My view is a kind of ontological monism like Pribram’s view, that can be also interpreted as a pluralism in the sense that Karl Popper put it, or as you put it as a scientific dualism, if this is possible.
      I think that Nature’s inteligence is the inteligence of Nature.
      Whith all these amazing order we see in the informational codes of Nature and in our brains, it is very very difficult not to see some kind of inteligence in it.
      Best
      Francisco

    • Dear Francisco:

      You cannot be a monist and a dualist at the same time…
      Monist: Nature´s intelligence is immanent to Nature´s systems
      Dualist: Nature´s intelligence comes from another domain (a transcedent God or Plato´s World of Ideas)
      The problem with Monism is how to explain the emergence of intelligence. This problem can be solved by a scientific or philosophical explantion.
      The classical problem with Dualism is that the other domain (the supernatural one) cannot be approached by the scientific method or even by a broader form of rationality (as Philosophy).
      I was wondering if Bohm’s Implicit Order could be a scientific approach to the supernatural domain (?)

      Best

      Alfredo

    • Thanks to Fransisco & Alfredo for a stimulating discussion.

      I have long argued for a similar approach and have also drawn on Bohm, Pribram, Umezawa and a monistic, mind/brain identity theory, focusing on wave patterns.

      So it seems as though we have much to discuss.

      Sketches of my recent work can be found in this forum under the “Decade of the Mind” discussion.

      Background material can be found here:

      Quanta & Consciousness

      Are Perceptual Fields Quantum Fields?

      On the Unification of Mind & Matter (PDF)

    • Alfredo (prev.): My question is if consciousness is the interference pattern itself …

      Brian: Note that, in a camera, light waves superpose to form an image of the object being photographed.

      Few things could be simpler, from a physical standpoint, as this superposition occurs even in a pinhole camera, where a minimal mechanism is in place.

      I hold that our visual fields just are such wavefronts of superposed photons—with the crucial difference being that they are self-referential, à la Gödel:

      How did Gödel prove his conclusions? Up to a point, the structure of his demonstration is modeled, as he himself noted, on the reasoning involved in one of the logical antinomies known as the “Richard Paradox,” first propounded by the French mathematician, Jules Richard, in 1905 […] The reasoning in the Richard Paradox is evidently fallacious. Its construction nevertheless suggests that it might be possible to “map” (or “mirror”) meta-mathematical statements about a sufficiently comprehensive formal system into the system itself. If this were possible, then meta- mathematical statements about a system would be represented by statements within the system. Thereby one could achieve the desirable end of getting the formal system to speak about itself—a most valuable form of self-consciousness.

      The idea of such mapping is a familiar one in mathematics. It is employed in coordinate geometry, which translates geometric statements into algebraic ones, so that geometric relations are mapped onto algebraic ones. The idea is manifestly used in the construction of ordinary maps, since the construction consists in projecting configurations on the surface of a sphere onto a plane […]

      So, although a photographic plate cannot be said to be conscious, a dynamic, self-referential field can quite clearly tell us about itself—a most valuable form of self-consciousness, indeed.

      Moreover, given the symmetries and phase relations of color & sound, e.g., the secondary qualities lead us by a direct route to gauge theory and to an EPR-complete quantum theory, where, finally, the additional spatial dimensions of M-theory also have a natural, direct interpretation.


      Gödel’s Proof

    • Godel had no idea what he was dealing with (nor did Church/Turing etc etc). His results bring out a property of languages in general where such are derived from self-referencing in the process of mediation.

      The point with mediation is that it has no ending since it works in the ‘space in-between’ stimulus/response and equates with the realm of the asymmetric. This realm manifests itself in the brain in the form of oscillations across hemispheres etc as a life form endevours to mediate part/whole (aspects/whole) dynamics.

      When mediation ceases, we have an instinct/habit/memory and so move from consciousness to the unconscious – as Libet’s work shows, when the mediation is done the agent of mediation (consciousness) disappears/moves-on.

      As my Categories of Mediation material shows, with DEPTH in self-referencing, categories derived form into elements used for analogy-making (aka pattern-matching).

      What this dynamic indicates is (a) a process covering serial-parallel, and so reason-intuition processes, and (b) consciousness emergent from mediation dynamics with the deeper the self-referencing the richer the consciousness since it increases the choices it has in describing itself (a property of this self-referencing is that the system becomes autological, but also prone to the perceptions of apparent paradoxes)

      When we move to META-language positions we will bring out the NATURAL uncertainty/incompleteness properties of languages since they are all mediation tools and so never ‘complete’ since completion is a different function in that we have a symmetric instinct/habit/memory where essentials are extracted from a difference to give us a sameness usable in processing further experiences.

      SELF-awareness comes out of the self-referencing in that we cover the self-referencing of the self-referenced – IOW consciousness is a derivative of self-referencing.

      The issues then are in development time – in the form of (a) a lot of neurons but more so (b) a lot of connections. (b) brings out wave-inteference issues where simplistic dichotomous, XOR, learnings will, OVER TIME, give us a rich associative memory system. This dynamic is isomorphic to such QM experiments as those done through slits and down converters etc etc to give us the ‘EPR’ paradox issues.

      IOW the experimental design of EPR experiments reflects what you get when you self-reference a dichotomy in the presence of indeterminacy – an emerging pattern indicating ‘all is connected’ – this being a property of symmetry (the slits reflect a local context, anti-symmetric position and the process reflects asymmetric dynamics)

      Although other life forms experience self-awareness, they lack the time element in development that allows for ‘connecting the dots’ and with that connection the emergence of consciousness-as-mediation and so as language.

      Thus our ape cousins are adults by 4, we still developing into our 20s. From a wave-interference position, we have 16+ years of further dynamics in setting down connections allowing for development of a consciousness far far superior to that sense of self of any other life forms – be they apes or eliphants or dolphins or crows.

      The ‘slits’ of EPR experiments are equivalent to the dichotomy structure of our brains but our brains come with a bias in that the dichotomy is more often part/whole biased and so a trichotomy – a tool of mediation. We see this in brain oscillations as it deals with the new/complex.

      The categories of mediation material maps out the basic categories and from their how they form into forms used for analogy-making and so language creation – this brings out a brake system for the potentially infinite regress of self-referencing.

      so – Godel’s (and Heisenberg, Church-Turing etc etc) did good work WITHIN their specialist realms without understanding exactly what they were dealing with. We are now in a better position to understand what is going on through considerations of the work in neuroscience and the dynamics of the chaos game – spontaneous generation of order through self-referencing whenver noise is contained, and that at all scales.

      With the self-reference in a neural context comes a brake in the form of language formation, initially through basic pattern-matching aka analogy/metaphor making.

      Chris
      Categories of Mediation

    • Dear Brian:

      You wrote: “So, although a photographic plate cannot be said to be conscious, a dynamic, self-referential field can quite clearly tell us about itself—a most valuable form of self-consciousness, indeed.”

      Dear Brian: In this paragraph my agreement as well as my disagreement with you are clear.
      In my view, consciousness includes three properties:
      a) it occurs to a subject who is potentially able to report it;
      b) it has information content (a pattern or a form);
      c) it also involves an experience of the content. This experience is a process that begins with the formation of the pattern and continues with action guided by the pattern, which feeds back on the pattern by means of perception.

      Making a comparison with your positions: the item b above (content) corresponds to your quantum fields and waves. However, you assume that the subject (my item “a”) is the content itself. I do not agree, since all subjects that we know to exist on Earth are living systems. Also it is far from clear how a quantum field “refers” to itself. “Reference” is a technical term from Philosophy that was originally used in the context of human language, which is produced by human subjects who are able to refer to (speak about) objects and processes.
      Another divergence is about the item “c” above. The self-reference of the quantum field does not seem to depend on any action in the environment, but this kind of magic (I would not call it “dynamical” as you did) does not happen to biological systems. In these systems, the conscious content influences action and then the feedback occurs by means of a perception of the results of the action. This is a true dynamical process of “self-organization” (not “self-reference”).
      Your friend,
      Alfredo

    • Dear Alfredo,

      Thanks as always for your thoughtful comments. I will try to address them in order:

      In my view, consciousness includes three properties:
      a) it occurs to a subject who is potentially able to report it;
      b) it has information content (a pattern or a form);
      c) it also involves an experience of the content. This experience is a process that begins with the formation of the pattern and continues with action guided by the pattern, which feeds back on the pattern by means of perception.

      Thus far I see no problem.

      Making a comparison with your positions: the item b above (content) corresponds to your quantum fields and waves. However, you assume that the subject (my item “a”) is the content itself.

      No, I really haven’t addressed this higher-order question of the subject and I do not make this assumption. Rather, I’ve taken over Minsky’s view of the modular brain and translated it into a hierarchical NN composed of field operators — matrices acting on input vectors to give output vectors. (I admit that this has all been entirely tacit on my part.)

      I do not agree, since all subjects that we know to exist on Earth are living systems.

      Sorry — don’t understand your point.

      Also it is far from clear how a quantum field “refers” to itself.

      Well, through a recursive loop, à la Gödel:

      Input vectors → operator matrices → output vectors → new input vectors.

      “Reference” is a technical term from Philosophy that was originally used in the context of human language, which is produced by human subjects who are able to refer to (speak about) objects and processes.

      Well, that is one use of “reference,” which hearkens back to Russell, Wittgenstein, et al., but also to Russell, Whitehead and Gödel.

      See: Fifty years of self-reference in arithmetic

      Another divergence is about the item “c” above. The self-reference of the quantum field does not seem to depend on any action in the environment, but this kind of magic (I would not call it “dynamical” as you did) does not happen to biological systems.

      Sorry if I was unclear; I take it as a given that the states of the fields which constitute the brain depend on states of the fields which constitute the environment. How else could we perceive anything?

      In these systems, the conscious content influences action and then the feedback occurs by means of a perception of the results of the action. This is a true dynamical process of “self-organization” (not “self-reference”).

      Yes, just so — and this recursive process is what I mean by self-reference.* Our actions in the world are referred back — via perception — to the self which generated them.

      It doesn’t seem to me as though we have any substantive disagreement, so far.

      Thanks again. I hope I have clarified things a bit(?)

      Best wishes,

      Brian


      *This is a common usage in computing:

      (1) Gödel Machines: Towards a Technical Justification of Consciousness

      (2) Functional Models of Cognition

      (3) Gödelian self-reference in agent-oriented software

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