•  20
    Contemporary models of consciousness, part II
    Journal of Mind and Behavior 12 (3): 407-420. 1991.
    Recent models of consciousness are reviewed which explore the relationship of consciousness to physical laws; many of these also explore the relationship of consciousness to biological findings. Issues investigated by these models are discussed, with the issues framed in a general way in order to provide a comparison between the models. In Part II the issues discussed include: Does all of the information content of consciousness correspond to neural coding in the brain? Does consciousness follow…Read more
  •  95
    The Arrow of Time and the Action of the Mind at the Molecular Level
    In Daniel P. Sheehan (ed.), Frontiers of Time, American Inst. of Physics. 2006.
    A new event is defined as an intervention in the time reversible dynamical trajectories of particles in a system. New events are then assumed to be quantum fluctuations in the spatial and momentum coordinates, and mental action is assumed to work by ordering such fluctuations. It is shown that when the cumulative values of such fluctuations in a mean free path of a molecule are magnified by molecular interaction at the end of that path, the momentum of a molecule can be changed from its origin…Read more
  •  661
    The action of consciousness and the uncertainty principle
    Journal of Nonlocality 1 (1). 2012.
    The term action of consciousness is used to refer to an influence, such as psychokinesis or free will, that produces an effect on matter that is correlated to mental intention, but not completely determined by physical conditions. Such an action could not conserve energy. But in that case, one wonders why, when highly accurate measurements are done, occasions of non-conserved energy (generated perhaps by unconscious PK) are not detected. A possible explanation is that actions of consciousness…Read more
  •  553
    The Possibility of Empirical Test of Hypotheses About Consciousness
    In S. R. Hameroff, A. W. Kaszniak & A. C. Scott (eds.), Towards a Science of Consciousness, Mit Press. pp. 739--742. 1996.
    The possibility of empirical test is discussed with respect to three issues: (1) What is the ontological relationship between consciousness and the brain/physical world? (2) What physical characteristics are associated with the mind/brain interface? (3) Can consciousness act on the brain independently of any brain process?
  •  553
    Does Consciousness Perform a Function Independently of the Brain?
    Frontier Perspectives, Center for Frontier Sciences, Temple University 2 (1): 19-34. 1991.
    Even if all of the content of conscious experience is encoded in the brain, there is a considerable difference between the view that consciousness does independent processing and the view that it does not. If all processing is done by the brain, then conscious experience is unnecessary and irrelevant to behavior. If consciousness performs a function, then its association with particular aspects of brain processing reflect its functional use in determining behavior. However, if consciousness do…Read more
  •  69
    What is beyond the edge of the known world?
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 10 (6-7): 7-28. 2003.
    Experiments show that psi differs from known physical processes in a variety of ways, and these differences are described herein. Because of these, psi cannot be accounted for in terms of presently known physical laws. A number of theories, of which we review a sampling, suggest ways in which known physical laws might be expanded in order to account for psi. However, there is no agreement on which of these theories, if any, will ultimately provide a general explanation. A further problem in …Read more
  •  40
    The action of the mind
    In I. Fredriksson (ed.), Aspects of Consciousness, Mcfarland. pp. 204. 2012.
    It is assumed that mental action, such as free will, exists, and an exploration is made of its relationship to the brain, physical laws, and evolutionary selection. If the assumption is made that all content of conscious experience is encoded in the brain, it follows that free will must act as process only. This result is consistent with the experimental results of Libet and others that if free will exists, it must act by making a selection between alternatives provided by the brain. Also, propo…Read more
  •  85
    Volition and physical laws
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (10): 27-47. 1999.
    The concept of free will is central to our lives, as we make day-to-day decisions, and to our culture, in our ethical and legal systems. The very concept implies that what we choose can produce a change in our physical environment, whether by pressing a switch to turn out electric lights or choosing a long-term plan of action which can affect many people. Yet volition is not a part of presently known physical laws and it is not even known whether it exists -- no physics experiments have ever est…Read more
  •  120
    Entropy and Vacuum Radiation
    Foundations of Physics 28 (7): 1191-1207. 1998.
    It is shown that entropy increase in thermodynamic systems can plausibly be accounted for by the random action of vacuum radiation. A recent calculation by Rueda using stochastic electrodynamics (SED) shows that vacuum radiation causes a particle to undergo a rapid Brownian motion about its average dynamical trajectory. It is shown that the magnitude of spatial drift calculated by Rueda can also be predicted by assuming that the average magnitudes of random shifts in position and momentum of a p…Read more
  •  84
    Societies of brains: Walter Freeman in conversation with Jean Burns
    with Walter J. Freeman
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (2): 172-180. 1996.
    [opening paragraph]: Walter Freeman discusses with Jean Burns some of the issues relating to consciousness in his recent book. Burns: To understand consciousness we need know its relationship to the brain, and to do that we need to know how the brain processes information. A lot of people think of brain processing in terms of individual neurons, and you're saying that brain processing should be understood in terms of dynamical states of populations?
  •  110
    Vacuum Radiation, Entropy, and Molecular Chaos
    Foundations of Physics 37 (12): 1727-1737. 2007.
    Vacuum radiation causes a particle to make a random walk about its dynamical trajectory. In this random walk the root mean square change in spatial coordinate is proportional to t 1/2, and the fractional changes in momentum and energy are proportional to t −1/2, where t is time. Thus the exchange of energy and momentum between a particle and the vacuum tends to zero over time. At the end of a mean free path the fractional change in momentum of a particle in a gas is very small. However, at the e…Read more
  •  59
    Quantum fluctuations and the action of the mind
    Noetic Journal 3 (4): 312-317. 2002.
    It is shown that if mental influence can change a position or momentum coordinate within the limits of the uncertainty principle, such change, when magnified by a single interaction, is sufficient to order the direction of traveling molecules. Mental influence could initiate an action potential in the brain through this process by using the impact of ordered molecules to open the gates of sodium channels in neuronal membranes. It is shown that about 80 ordered molecules, traveling at thermal v…Read more
  •  3
    The Nature of Causal Action
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 21 (3-4): 60-73. 2014.
    It is not known whether consciousness can affect the physical world, as a result of a free will action or in some other way. To do so, it must be able to produce physical changes that cannot be accounted for by physical laws, an ability we will refer to as causal action, and several issues relevant to this possibility are discussed. 1) Until recently it was thought that the conservation laws of physics would prohibit causal action. It has now been found that such is not the case, but other probl…Read more
  • Contemporary models of consciousness, part I
    Journal of Mind and Behavior 11 (2): 153-171. 1990.
    Recent models of consciousness are reviewed which explore the relationship of consciousness to physical laws; many of these also explore the relationship of consciousness to biological findings. Issues investigated by these models are discussed, with the issues framed in a general way in order to provide a comparison between the models. In Part I the issues discussed are: (1) What is the causal relationship between consciousness and the physical world (physicalism, dualism, etc.)? and (2) What p…Read more
  •  469
    Two forms of independent action by consciousness have been proposed by various researchers – free will and holistic processing. (Holistic processing contributes to the formation of behavior through the holistic use of brain programs and encoding.) The well-known experiment of Libet et al. (1983) implies that if free will exists, its action must consist of making a selection among alternatives presented by the brain. As discussed herein, this result implies that any physical changes mind can p…Read more