1. What is consciousness? Stuart Hameroff MD
Anesthesiology, Psychology and Center for Consciousness Studies
The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

2. BING!!! In Western philosophy, consciousness is
a representation of the world in our brain
BING!!!
B: Plato believed that consciousness occurred in the brain as a representation of the outside world.

3. Materialism
Brain=Mind=Computer
Mind
Matter

4. In Eastern philosophy consciousness is connected to a deeper reality.
In Eastern philosophy consciousness is connected to a deeper reality
BING!!! BING!!!
BING!!! BING!!!
BING!!! BING!!!
BING!!! BING!!!
BING!!! BING!!!

5. Panpsychism
Mind
= Matter

9. BING!!!

10. BING!!!

11. Idealism
Mind
Matter

12. For Descartes, consciousness like a play on stage
The Cartesian Theater

13. Descartes believed an immaterial soul perceived the world in our head
BING!!
Descartes believed an immaterial
soul perceived the world in our head

14. Cartesian Dualism
Mind
Matter

15. Simon and Newell developed similar
brain/mind computer architectures
CPU

16. BING!! Neuroscientists Baars, Edelman/Tononi,
Changeux/Dehaene, Crick/Koch cast
thalamo-cortical oscillations as
Global workspace for consciousness
BING!!

17. BING!! Neuroscientists Baars, Edelman/Tononi,
Changeux/Dehaene, Crick/Koch cast
thalamo-cortical oscillations as
Global workspace for consciousness
Bottom-up, top-down,
hierarchical, based on
sensory inputs, arousal
BING!!

18. But consciousness also internally-generated:
mind wandering, daydreaming, memories, meditation
The Brain's Dark Energy/Default network
Raichle (2006) Science 314: 1249 – 1250, 2006)
BING!!!
BING!!

19. Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral/sexual
may be either non-conscious
(Chalmers’ easy problems, zombie modes, auto-pilot)

20. non-conscious (zombie/auto-pilot) or conscious
Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral, Sexual
non-conscious (zombie/auto-pilot)
or conscious
Bing

21. Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral, Sexual
Bing
accompanied by gamma synchrony EEG

22. Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral, Sexual
Bing
moving through the brain

23. Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral, Sexual
Bing
Bing
Bing

24. Brain functions (cognition)
Sensory perception
Control of behavior
Learning, Memory
Attention, Sleep
Language
Intelligence
Visceral, Sexual
Bing
Bing
Bing

25. Gamma synchrony in olfactory bulb cortex correlates with conscious smell.
J Neuroscience.
26(8): , 2006
Neuron46(5):761-72, 2005
BING!!

26. Neuroscience.
159(4): , 2009
Brain Research.
1156:46-58, 2007
Conscious feelings of pleasure and reward correlate gamma synchrony in dopaminergic nucleus accumbens
BING!!

27. EEG is divided into
frequency bands:
Delta (< 4 Hz)
Theta (4 to 8 Hz)
Alpha (8 to 12 Hz)
Beta (13 to 30 Hz)
Gamma (> 30 Hz)
Coherence in gamma synchrony
among different brain regions is
the best correlate of consciousness
The best neurophysiological
correlate of consciousness
(NCC) comes from EEG,
voltage fluctuations recorded
from scalp or brain surface.

28. BING!!!
BING
Lutz et al, PNAS

29. “. consciousness itself is only momentary. a sequence of moments
“... consciousness itself is only momentary a sequence of moments..causing each other…each moment of consciousness only lasts for a very short period of time.  A very advanced meditator…is able to detect the transition from moment to moment…They are..1/64th of the snap of a finger.”
John Dunne
Emory University

30. Buddhist writings quantify the frequency of conscious moments
Buddhist writings quantify the frequency of conscious moments. The Saarvastivaadins (Von
Rospatt, 1995) describe 6,480,000 moments in 24 hours (one moment per 13.3 seconds = 75 Hz), and Chinese Buddhists as 50 ‘thoughts’ per second (50 Hz). Gamma synchrony EEG is 30 to 90 Hz.

31. Dendrites
Cell body Axonal firing, or ‘spike’
‘ Hodgkin-Huxley neuron’ leads to integrate-and-fire

40. Where’s consciousness?

41. Where’s the BING?

42. EEG measures post-synaptic
dendritic
integration
(not axonal firings)
Synchrony comes from
dendrites

43. Two types of synapses
1) Chemical synapses
2) Electrical (gap junction) synapses

52. B I N G !

53. BING!! BING!!

54. B I N G !

57. Nancy Woolf

58. Normal Alzheimers

65. Neutral Monism
Mind
Matter
Deeper reality

66. Quantum Classical Reality is described by two distinct sets of laws,
forming two worlds:
The quantum world and the classical world.
Classical
Quantum

67. Classical Quantum (large scale, observable) (small scale,
unobservable)

68. Classical Quantum Consciousness (large scale, observable)
(small scale,
unobservable)

69. Four features of the quantum world:
Particles can exist in multiple possible states or
locations simultaneously: “superposition”
2) Unified particles which become separated remain connected over distance and time: “quantum entanglement”
3) Multiple particles can condense into one unified entity: “quantum coherence”
4) Precise location AND momentum of quantum
particle are indeterminate: “uncertainty”

70. Quantum superposition In the quantum world, particles/objects….
Behave like waves……
Exist in two or more locations or states simultaneously (quantum superposition),
Electron spin up
and spin down

71. In the quantum world, particles/objects….
Quantum entanglement
In the quantum world, particles/objects….
2) Remain intimately connected when spatially separated
(quantum entanglement – Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”).

72. In the quantum world, particles/objects….
Quantum coherence
In the quantum world, particles/objects….
3) Condense into unitary objects (quantum coherence, Bose-Einstein condensation)
governed by one wave function. If one component is perturbed, others “feel it”.

73. Quantum effects are used in quantum information technology
Quantum computers – Information represented as “bits” of 1 or 0 as in conventional
computers, but also as quantum bits, “qubits” of superpositions of both 1 AND 0.
Qubits communicate/compute by entanglement, collapse/reduce to answer.
Quantum cryptography – Quantum states transmitted by nonlocal entanglement;
eavesdropping alters message, hence secrecy insured. Now used commercially!
Quantum teleportation – States of particles communicated by nonlocal entanglement,
resulting in destruction/exact duplication elsewhere. Beam me up, Scotty!!!

74. Why don’t we see quantum superpositions in our world?
Consciousness
collapses
the wave function:
Schrodinger’s cat
2) Superpositions are
separations in reality:
multiple worlds

75. Superpositions persist until interaction with classical
3) Decoherence:
Superpositions persist until
interaction with classical
environment at the border between quantum and classical worlds.
(But this doesn’t explain isolated superpositions)
4) David Bohm’s Quantum potential: Underlying pilot waves (“Implicate order”)
guide quantum particles
to choose/“unfold to”
classical states
(“explicate order”)

76. Consciousness is an actual physical process, a sequence of quantum state reductions connected by E=h/t to an objective threshold inherent in
spacetime geometry
(objective reduction, OR)
Bing!!!
Sir Roger Penrose

77. Penrose: underlying structure of the quantum world embeds Platonic information and precursors of life and consciousness
Freeman Dyson: “Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of the universe”
(The quantum world is NOT random/uncertain; randomness/uncertainty introduced in measurement/decoherence. Einstein: “God does not play dice with the universe!”
Einstein: Matter is equivalent to curvature in spacetime - not only at large scales, but at infinitesimally tiny scales – the basement level of the universe at the Planck scale…10-33 cm

78. a bubble or separation in the fabric of reality
Penrose observed that quantum superposition – an object in two places/states simultaneously – equated to two spacetime curvatures in different directions:
a bubble or separation in the fabric of reality
But the separations are unstable, and after a time t (given by E=h/t) will spontaneously self-collapse to one curvature or the other (an “objective reduction” – O.R.).

79. Orch OR conscious events - Ripples in quantum
Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing
Orch OR conscious events - Ripples in quantum
spacetime geometry occurring at gamma synchrony

80. Penrose-Hameroff 1995
Quantum computations in microtubules reduce by OR, orchestrated by synapses - Orch OR

81. Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model 1995/1996 original publications
1995 to present – criticism, no refutation
1998 – 20 testable predictions published
Validations:
1) coherent megahertz excitations in microtubules (Pokorny 2004)
2) warm quantum coherence in biology (Engel et al, 2007)
3) topological quantum error correction
4) ballistic conduction in microtubules at megahertz (Bhadyapatyay)
5) gap junctions mediate neural correlate of consciousness ( )
Conscious pilot/Orch OR is the most complete theory of consciousness

82. Where’s consciousness? Where’s the BING?
Hameroff and Penrose 96 –Precursors of conscious experience embedded in the fabric of spacetime, fundamental spacetime geometry at the Planck scale
Loop quantum gravity/quantum geometry String theory, Calabi-Yau space
Consciousness, information in the fabric of spacetime geometry?
Where’s consciousness? Where’s the BING?

83. Our choices, actions and perceptions may be influenced by
quantum Platonic values at the Planck scale
(e.g. The “Way of the Tao”)

84. Mind Matter Ground of being Quantum spacetime geometry Nonduality
Neutral Monism
Mind
Matter
Quantum spacetime geometry
Ground of being

85. Mind Matter Ground of being Quantum spacetime geometry Nonduality
Neutral Monism
Mind
Matter
Penrose
Objective Reduction decoherence
Orch OR measurement
Quantum spacetime geometry
Ground of being

86. Conclusions 
Consciousness is a sequence of discrete quantum events
at the fundamental level of spacetime geometry
Such events are connected to the brain via quantum processes in microtubules
Conceivably, when brain metabolism ceases, quantum information in spacetime geometry can persist, and remain entangled as a ‘soul’
Soul-like quantum information could return to the body
(NDE/OOB), or an embryo or zygote (reincarnation)

87. Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010
April 12-17, Tucson, Arizona