Do we have a quantum soul? | Stuart Hameroff | TEDxBrussels

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Dr. Hameroff's research for 35 years has involved consciousness - how the pinkish gray meat between our ears produces the richness of experiential awareness. A clinical anesthesiologist, Hameroff has studied how anesthetic gas molecules selectively erase consciousness via delicate quantum effects on protein dynamics. Following a longstanding interest in the computational capacity of microtubules inside neurons, Hameroff teamed with the eminent British physicist Sir Roger Penrose to develop a controversial quantum theory of consciousness called orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) which connects brain processes to fundamental space-time geometry. Recently Hameroff has explored the theoretical implications of Orch OR for consciousness to exist independent of the body, distributed in deeper, lower, faster scales in non-local, holographic space-time, raising possible scientific approaches to the soul and spirituality.

Hello, everybody.

It's great to be here.
Thank you very much.

I'm going to talk about
how quantum biology can save the world

and the threats to the world -
in the immediate future,

not worrying about
the Omega Point like Frank

but in the next 100 to 1,000 years -

overcrowding, hatred, wars, terrorism -
all basically due to overpopulation -

disease, lack of food and energy,
pollution and warming,

lack of purpose and meaning -

kind of an existential crisis:
who are we and why are we here?

The world under threat
appears to be divided into two realms

described by two different sets
of physical laws.

The quantum - which is cut off
a little bit, oh no, it's not -

which is immaterial,
coexisting possibilities,

non-local, unified, connected,

has some ultimate truth -
although we don't know what it is yet -

deeper levels of reality,

and in many senses: spirit-like.

The classical world,

the billiard-ball universe
that we live in right now -

appear to, entirely, but not so -

is material, Newtonian, definite,
macroscopic, local, predictable,

disconnected, postmodern,
and somewhat boring, actually.

(Laughter)

Now, what is life?

If you approach life
from classical physics,

you see that biology
is a set of self-organizing functions.

There's no secret to life.

Brain activities
are equivalent to computers.

Consciousness is epiphenomenal illusion
with no causal power.

That's the party line
in standard neuroscience and philosophy.

Accordingly, Thomas Huxley said years ago,

"We're merely conscious automata,
helpless spectators," like Pac-Man.

That's the story we get

from classical physics'
approach to the brain.

Now, applying quantum physics to biology,

first by Erwin Schrödinger,
who came up with Schrödinger's equation,

Schrödinger's cat,
Schrödinger's book "What Is Life?" -

where he suggested that quantum effects
play key roles in living systems -

and Schrödinger's protein,
which was proven in 2007,

showing that protein
can be in quantum superposition

of two or more different states
at the same time.

He suggested, and many of us
have followed to suggest,

that quantum features,
non-local entanglement,

superposition, unity,

quantum coherence, quantum information,
a kind of quantum vitalism,

may play key roles
in biological functions,

such as cell division, mitosis,

how the centrioles guide
the chromosomes' separations,

which has to be perfect
or else can lead to cancer.

Healing - maybe have some kind of
non-local component.

And also, consciousness.

As Walters mentioned,

Roger Penrose and I have developed
a theory of consciousness called Orch OR -

I don't have time to go into it now.

It basically proposes quantum computation

in brain neuron microtubules
inside neurons.

So rather than
neuron-to-neuron communication,

we're looking at a deeper
level inside neurons

to give a global sense of consciousness
through quantum mechanics,

which results in real-time causality

and free will.

We avoid the problem of epiphenomenal;

it gives consciousness real-time control

and a potential connection
to fundamental space-time geometry,

quantum space-time geometry,
through Roger's objective reduction.

This is consistent
with Eastern spiritual traditions.

Although Roger doesn't like
to talk about it,

I've taken the liberty of observing
the implications of what he said

and what we've said for consciousness,

for Eastern philosophy
and other spiritual traditions.

But the skeptics said, "Living systems
are too warm, wet and noisy.

Quantum coherence
is destroyed by decoherence."

Decoherence.

But in the last five years,

multiple lines of evidence
starting with photosynthesis

have shown that quantum coherence occurs
in warm biological systems, routinely.

The plants, the food we eat,
all depend on quantum coherence.

Plants absorbing photons,
converting to chemical energy,

utilizing quantum coherence.

Also, recently, honored Bandyopadhyay

at the National Institute
of Material Sciences in Japan

has shown that there
is megahertz coherence,

quantum conductance,
and topological qubits

in microtubules at room temperature.

Very exciting work.

Quantum biology papers, conferences
are popping up like flowers in the spring.

Sessions at the American Physical Society,

recently at Google - the Google Workshop
on Quantum Biology, and elsewhere.

How is this going to save the world?

Let's go back to our threats to the world
and consider the first one:

overcrowding, hatred, wars and terrorism.

That's a tough one.
We'll save that for last.

We'll come back to that.

Okay, disease. Jeff mentioned
a little bit about this.

But if life is a quantum system,

we can ask, "How is quantum coherence
optimized in a healthy state?"

We have a different endpoint to shoot for.

We can consider disease as decoherence,

disease as a process that tends
to destroy quantum coherence,

which is the optimal form
of living systems.

Also, a real-time molecular code
for memory, cognition, and consciousness

can be co-opted for therapy.

So, in the microtubules that I mentioned

there's an information code that tells
motor proteins where to deliver proteins,

precursors for synapses, tile proteins.

And when this goes bad,
we have Alzheimer's disease.

A molecule called CaMKII
seems to take synaptic information

and deposit it in microtubules
in a memory code.

I think this is going to be the equivalent
in real-time coding of the DNA code

that was discovered by Watson and Crick.

When we can take advantage of it,
we'll be able to treat diseases

by interfacing and connecting
to the real-time molecular code

inside the cells.

Okay, the next question:
how can quantum biology save the world?

Lack of food and energy.

Highly efficient quantum conductance
converting sunlight to chemical energy

used in photosynthesis,
which has been proven,

should be able
to be emulated in substances

like graphenes and fullerenes

to revolutionize molecular
agriculture and solar power.

Mohan Sarovar, UC Berkeley,
is working in this direction;

he's one of the people
working in photosynthesis.

Okay, pollution and warming.

The same answer:

extremely efficient, clean solar energy
with quantum conductance

can potentially help us a lot
in terms of pollution and warming.

OK, what about lack
of purpose and meaning?

Who are we and why are we here?

Well, if quantum consciousness is correct,

for example, if Penrose's idea is correct,

we are literally ripples

in the fine structure
of space-time geometry,

which can resonate -

levels of consciousness can resonate
from the Planck scale,

the bottom level of the Universe,
multiple hierarchical levels to the brain.

This is consistent
with Eastern philosophy

and also indicates that afterlife,
reincarnation, and out-of-body experiences

that we've heard about are plausible.

The quantum soul.

This may be scientifically feasible.

Here's a picture
of an out-of-body experience.

I work in medicine, in anesthesiology;
we hear stories about this all the time.

Statistical examinations
of people having cardiac arrest

show it's a real effect,

and the near-death experience

is something that really
needs to be studied.

Okay, let's go to the tough one:
overcrowding, hatred, wars, and terrorism.

I would suggest these are caused largely
by internal drives for conscious feelings:

sexual pleasure, fear, anger, salvation.

It's a bit simplified,

but what if conscious quantum coherence
in the brain could be optimally tuned?

For example, by ultrasound
at resonant frequencies

for brain microtubules.

What if, instead of needing
to have aggression or sexual attitudes,

that somebody could have pleasure
without going to all the trouble?

For example, a recent -

(Laughter) (Applause)

Thank you.

A recent approach is using
transcranial ultrasound

which vibrates microtubules
at resonant frequencies.

Jamie Tyler, Arizona State University,
just got a big grant from the military

to study ultrasound brain machine
interfaces for military applications

with the promise for many application
in medicine and psychiatry.

We at the University of Arizona
are applying this

to chronic pain and memory
and some other problems.

I would mention
that many of these issues -

the near-death
and out-of-body experiences,

the backward time effects that can rescue
consciousness from epiphenomenalism,

and transcranial therapies:

transcranial magnetic,
transcranial electrical,

and transcranial ultrasound therapies -

will be discussed at this conference
in Stockholm next May,

Toward a Science of Consciousness.

Roger Penrose and Deepak Chopra
on the same program.

Another possibility
for this last problem is:

What if consciousness could be uploaded

or quantum teleported
even to artificial media,

made of graphene, fullerene,
or microtubule arrays?

With near infinite possibilities

for enhanced, enlightened states
of consciousness and pleasure.

This could be - and it would have to be
to be able to work -

to be better than sex.

Now, is that possible?

Well, this kind of goes back
to an idea of Descartes,

who said, "Perhaps, as far as we know,
we are merely a brain in a vat,

fed information by an evil genius."

For example, this brain who thinks
he or she is walking outside in the sun.

So maybe in the future
we'll have some kind of graphene arrays

with some kind of conscious experience -

maybe something like this,
maybe you can come up with own;

it's just a suggestion -

where perhaps, when our bodies give out,

we can upload or download
our consciousness

to some alternative medium

and exist independently

or just do it for fun.

So, to conclude
I want to say that I believe

that quantum biology
is literally the secret of life,

and its understanding may save the world.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)