From Micro to Macro: The Combination of Consciousness

Abstract

Crick and Koch’s 1990 “neurobiological theory of consciousness” sparked the race for the physical correlates of subjective experience. 30 years later, cognitive sciences trend toward consideration of the brain’s electromagnetic field as the primary seat of consciousness, the “to be” of the individual. Recent advancements in laboratory tools have preceded an influx of studies reporting a synchronization between the neuronally generated EM fields of interacting individuals. An embodied and enactive neuroscientific approach has gained traction in the wake of these findings wherein consciousness and cognition are theorized to be regulated and distributed beyond the individual. We approach this frontier to extend the implications of person-to-person synchrony to propose a process of combination whereby coupled individual agents merge into a hierarchical cognitive system to which they are subsidiary. Such is to say, the complex mammalian consciousness humans possess may not be the tip of the iceberg, but another step in a succeeding staircase. To this end, the axioms and conjectures of General Resonance Theory are utilized to describe this phenomenon of interpersonal resonant combination. Our proposal describes a coupled system of spatially distributed EM fields that are synchronized through recurrent, entraining behavioral interactions. The system, having achieved sufficient synchronization, enjoys an optimization of information flow that alters the conscious states of its merging agents and enhances group performance capabilities. In the race for the neurobiological correlates of subjective experience, we attempt the first steps in the journey toward defining the physical basis of “group consciousness.” The establishment of a concrete account of the combination of consciousness at a scale superseding individual human consciousness remains speculation, but our suggested approach provides a framework for empirical testing of these possibilities.

Don’t forget the boundary problem! How EM field topology can address the overlooked cousin to the binding problem for consciousness

“…GRT also needs to address even slower shared resonances in larger interpersonal systems, such as singing choirs or rhythmic dancing. Indeed some have argued that GRT may therefore be able to account for phenomena such as group consciousness (Young et al, 2022). It is possible that all nested levels of resonance represent separate levels of consciousness, as Hunt (2020) suggests, but then we must explain why the human experience is so consistently at the meso level.…”

The contribution of coherence field theory to a model of consciousness: electric currents, EM fields, and EM radiation in the brain

“…Science is making rapid progress in its capacity to model faster than light entanglement between photonic fields, an action at a distance which is canonical to quantum physics. Though advances are being made in finding ways to empirically verify the mechanisms of group consciousness phenomena, in essence, brain wave entrainment and synchronization between multiple individuals via some behavior-linked mechanism, research is in its early stages (Young et al, 2022 ). Though brain waves are of course integral to the presentation of all conscious phenomena, we presently have much less cause for attributing ESP to mediation by LFPs and emergent flow shapes in the electric field than entanglement dynamics of the EM radiation they contain.…”

Consciousness and inward electromagnetic field interactions

“…The idea being that synaptic and discharge currents in neurons ( Figure 1A ), especially large numbers of connected and synchronously and often rhythmically active neurons ( Figure 1B ) produce an EMF “cloud” of energy that changes moment by moment as underlying brain electrical activity changes. There is no doubt that this energy cloud exists since it is easily measured using both electrical and magnetic detectors (EEG and MEG) ( Dyba et al, 2021 ; Keppler, 2021 ; Young et al, 2021 , 2022 ; Hales and Ericson, 2022 ; Kitchener and Hales, 2022 ). From these measures we know EMFs radiate in 3 dimensions at varying powers and frequencies, represented in Figure 1C as differing colors on the right side of the image.…”