Scientists offer quantum theory of soul's existence

[Luc]

News.com.au

October 31,2012

A PAIR of world-renowned quantum scientists say they can prove the existence of the soul.
American Dr Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules which live within our brain cells.
Their idea stems from the notion of the brain as a biological computer, "with 100 billion neurons and their axonal firings and synaptic connections acting as information networks".
Dr Hameroff, Professor Emeritus at the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and Director of the Centre of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, and Sir Roger have been working on the theory since 1996.
They argue that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects inside these microtubules - a process they call orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).
In a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state but the information within them is not destroyed. Or in layman's terms, the soul does not die but returns to the universe.
Dr Hameroff explained the theory at length in the Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary "Through the Wormhole", which was recently aired in the US by the Science Channel.
The quantum soul theory is now trending worldwide, thanks to stories published this week by The Huffington Post and the Daily Mail, which have generated thousands of readers comments and social media shares.
"Let's say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state," Dr Hameroff said.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/news/quantum-...#ixzz2BfhLnXhv

[Sheila]

I watched a series of Youtubes of Hameroff explaining his theory to Deepak Chopra. It’s very appealing, but very hard for me to really understand. It’s interesting that it’s “trending” right now. Maybe that has something to do with the recent Newsweek cover of Eben Alexander’s NDE, which has set off a firestorm of debate between skeptics and people who see NDE’s as veridical.

Eventually, I do believe we’ll understand the physics of consciousness, psi, and afterlife. They’re not really “supernatural.” They’re natural.

[Luc]

That's the thing - we are on the verge of some significant discoveries (re-descoveries rather?) being made, and different camps will be having their own sub-theories going on.

On a side-note, every next generation always says the same thing "Interesting times we live in", but the time now is just mind-blowing.

[Junior]

*rubs chin* I need to think about this.

My first thought though, is whether the 'soul' only resides in the brain. I always thought it was housed by the whole body.

[Sheila]

Junior -- I don't think Hameroff is saying the soul resides in the brain or body. I *think* he's saying the soul, aka your personal field of consciousness, exists partly independently of the brain/body and the brain is a bi-directional transceiver -- it receives information from your consciousness and it sends information to your consciousness. And the microtubules are where consciousness meets physicality. I'm not sure if I'm interpreting him right.

[Sheila]

Luc -- It's really great how genuinely excited you are about the near future!!

[Junior]

Junior -- I don't think Hameroff is saying the soul resides in the brain or body. I *think* he's saying the soul, aka your personal field of consciousness, exists partly independently of the brain/body and the brain is a bi-directional transceiver -- it receives information from your consciousness and it sends information to your consciousness. And the microtubules are where consciousness meets physicality. I'm not sure if I'm interpreting him right.

O_O Well I certainly didn't read it that way!

I just ... IDK - sleep deprived that I am - it was the line that read "the soul does not die but returns to the universe" that intrigued me.

[Junior]

"The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can't be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

If the information is contained within microtubules (note the plural), and then distributes and dissipates to the universe,woudn't that mean each individual microtubule's info would exist independently in the universe? Or does it all rejoin the "one" ... Or .. "i am in the father and the father is in me" - we are all interconnected...

Ok..my head is spinning now..and NOT because of w/d!!!

[Sheila]

Junior -- no one could possibly understand what Hameroff is saying just from Luc's post. I watched a dozen Youtube videos of him, and I'm still not sure what he was saying.

All of the options you mentioned are subscribed to by different people -- we lose personal identity and merge, or we retain personal identity and are interconnected, etc. I'm not sure which theory is the one Hameroff would espouse!

[Luc]

I moved the thread here, folks. I had intended it to be in the "Spirit..." in the first place, but I put it somewhere else by mistake.