The Mystery

If an apple pops into our field of vision, photons of light enter our eye and hit the back of the retina where light-sensitive rods and cones are stimulated and send a cascade of action potentials to the primary visual cortex. Action potentials are converted from electrical energy to chemical energy when passing from neuron to neuron over the synaptic cleft. An image is formed in our cortex of a red apple on a table, but other information is being processed as well, such as the mealy texture of the apple indicating it is somewhat rotten. Stimuli from touch receptors, taste receptors, and visual receptors are all amalgamated to allow you to resolve that you are looking at an unappetizing apple. But how were all of those interpretations of stimuli, traveling along separate cortical systems combined? What is consciousness? Some would describe it as a state of being aware of one’s existence, the passing of time, and processing of thoughts. René Descartes, the 17th century French mathematic

The CEMI field proposes that the brain’s (conscious) EM field can itself influence neuronal firing. Radio sets and TVs are designed to be sensitive to the electromagnetic fields of radio waves; but in fact all electrical phenomena are sensitive to the surrounding EM field. Neurons are fired by specific structures, known as voltage-gated ion channels that respond to the external EM field. Mostly they are gated in such a way that only massive changes to the brain’s EM field are likely to influence neuron firing. However, in a busy brain there will be many neurons teetering on the brink of firing and these undecided neurons  may be exquisitely sensitive to the EM field. The CEMI field – our consciousness – will come into play when the brain is poised to make delicate decisions. Several recent papers have indeed demonstrated exactly this phenomenon, for example, in their 2011 paper ‘Ephaptic coupling of cortical neurons‘, Christof Koch’s group at Caltech demonstrated that weak EM fields, o

Consider driving along a familiar road. You may be listening to the radio, thinking about some problem at work, but your brain is busy performing all the complex computations necessary to control your limb movements and maintain your car on the busy road, unconsciously. You spot a hazard sign 'Roadworks Major Congestion Ahead' and immediately your conscious mind takes control, to slow the car and perhaps try to find an alternative route home. What is it that is taking control in these situations? What we need to look for is something that is a product of the brains activity, that integrates information but which also has the power to influence that activity. Surprisingly, we have known for years that such an entity exists within our brain. The neurons in our brain transmit electrical signals along and between nerve fibers. It is always assumed that the electrons and neurotransmitters moving down these nerves are the movers and shakers of neuronal computation. However, all elect

Only 5% of the known universe is visible to us. The other 95% is called dark matter and dark energy, and it's making scientists rethink what we know about the cosmos. Jet Propulsion Lab’s Fundamental Physics Portfolio Manager John Callas explains what dark energy is, why it’s so hard to study, and what NASA is doing to unlock this big mystery. The sciences are pointing toward a new sense of a living world. The cosmos is like a developing organism, and so is our planet, Gaia. The laws of Nature may be more like habits. Partly as a result of the ‘hard problem’ of finding space for human consciousness in the materialist worldview, there is a renewed interest in panpsychist philosophies, according to which some form of mind, experience or consciousness is associated with all self-organizing systems, including atoms, molecules and plants. Maybe the sun is conscious, and so are other stars, and entire galaxies. If so, what about the mind of the universe as a whole? Rupert Sheldrake is a