Quantum Psyche, Science and Religion – Blog of Alexander Bukalov

In modern science, including quantum physics, entirely scientific concepts are being developed that to a certain extent combine religious, psychological, biological and physical concepts. For example, here is the dissertation “Philosophical Analysis of the Quantum Concept of Consciousness”, with a good overview of the works on this topic. There are several international journals on this topic, for example, “Neuroquantology” with a fairly representative international editorial board: . Since 2001, the “Physics of consciousness and life, cosmology and astrophysics” journal is published by the International Institute of Socionics MIS . In general, in a number of works, psychic, transpersonal and derivative phenomena are considered as a consequence of the quantum nature of the psyche, the nature of which is not limited to the molecular-biological substrate. That is, the psyche is not a completely local entity living according to the laws of the quantum world, and religion is, in a sense, a reflection of these laws, providing a set of rules for correct behavior in this quantum world. Therefore, the contradictions between “materialism” – “atheism” and “spirituality” – “religion” are due to the consideration of different, but related realities – the “classical” and “quantum” world with its non-local paradoxes and phenomena.

Here are articles in the famous academic journal “Advances in Physical Sciences”. Its editor-in-chief, Academician V.L. Ginzburg, a Nobel Prize winner, was, as is well known, the chairman of the commission on pseudoscience, but supported the discussion and debate on this issue, started by Doctor of Physics and Mathematics M.B. Mensky (FIAN), a famous specialist in quantum field theory. Articles in UFN on this topic:

By the way, I would like to remind you that in the Universe known to us, the observable matter – atoms, molecules and their fields – make up only 4.5% of the total mass and energy of the Universe. The rest – 95.5% – is the incomprehensible “dark matter” (27%) filling the galaxies, and the mysterious “dark energy” (68.5%) causing the accelerated expansion of the Universe. And when statements are made that “we know all the basic laws of nature”, then even from a methodological point of view, not to mention common sense, such statements look, to put it mildly, naive. Therefore, the hypothesis about the existence of quantum structures from an as yet unknown form of matter, additional to biological structures, but connected with them in a certain physical way, seems quite legitimate. These structures are responsible for mental phenomena and consciousness and are associated with biological processes.

Of course, the emergence of the concept of quantum consciousness is associated with a number of theoretical, conceptual and experimental problems. Including the presence of living and working people who lack up to 90% of neurons in their brains: https://geektimes.ru/post/278470/, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61127-1/fulltext . Such people, by their very existence, undermine a number of neurological concepts. In 2003, I discussed this topic with the director of the Brain Institute, academician Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva, while visiting her at the institute. We discussed the nature of the psyche for a long time. I told her about my theory of the quantum nature of consciousness (quantum superfluid structures), which I was developing. She was very interested and said that such a theory could clarify a lot in what they observe as brain researchers. She had been studying the human brain for 45 years. This inspired me, and I later published a series of works on this topic (2004–2010), and made report at the scientific conference “The Problem of Consciousness in Interdisciplinary Perspective” at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2012. I would like to note that fully written texts were accepted for the selection of speakers, and they were evaluated by a qualified program committee. Therefore, this report underwent full scientific approval, plus discussions and debates behind the scenes.

To this day, after 10 years, no physiologist has yet clearly explained the phenomenon of a living and employed “clerk from Marseille” who lacks 80-90% of his brain, including absolutely essential parts. In addition, an experimental discovery was recently reported self-awareness in ants (!) . For reference: ants have only 250 thousand neurons against 100 billion in humans, or a similar number in cetaceans. But artificial neuron-like systems with millions of elements are already working, but they lack self-awareness. It turns out that the presence of self-awareness depends little on the number of neurons, that is, the volume of biological structures.
And this again brings us back to the question of the quantum nature of consciousness and its quantum substrate. From the concept proposed on the basis of a number of facts and quantum theory it follows in particular that the disintegration of the molecular body after physical death does not lead to the death of the quantum structure: it continues to exist, being the carrier of consciousness. This provides an explanation for the thousand-year-old religious ideas and spiritual experience of humanity without contradicting scientific ideas. Of course, this concept is still in the status of a scientific hypothesis, awaiting further verification and clarification.