Can Quantum Physics Explain Consciousness?

A new approach to a once-farfetched theory is making it

plausible that the brain functions like a quantum computer.

davidope / Quanta Magazine

JENNIFER OUELLETTE
 NOV 7, 2016

SCIENCE

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The mere mention of quantum consciousness makes most

physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague,
insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis
proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play
some role in human cognition. Matthew Fisher, a physicist at
the University of California, Santa Barbara, raised eyebrows
late last year when he published a paper in Annals of
Physics proposing that the nuclear spins of phosphorus
atoms could serve as rudimentary qubits in the brain
which would essentially enable the brain to function like a
quantum computer.

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As recently as 10 years ago, Fishers hypothesis would have

been dismissed by many as nonsense. Physicists have been
burned by this sort of thing before, most notably in 1989,
when Roger Penrose proposed that mysterious protein
structures called microtubules played a role in human
consciousness by exploiting quantum effects. Few
researchers believe such a hypothesis plausible. Patricia
Churchland, a neurophilosopher at the University of
California, San Diego, memorably opined that one might as
well invoke pixie dust in the synapses to explain human
cognition.

Fishers hypothesis faces the same daunting obstacle that

has plagued microtubules: a phenomenon called quantum
decoherence. To build an operating quantum computer, you
need to connect qubitsquantum bits of informationin a
process called entanglement. But entangled qubits exist in a
fragile state. They must be carefully shielded from any noise
in the surrounding environment. Just one photon bumping
into your qubit would be enough to make the entire system
decohere, destroying the entanglement and wiping out the
quantum properties of the system. Its challenging enough
to do quantum processing in a carefully controlled laboratory
environment, never mind the warm, wet, complicated mess
that is human biology, where maintaining coherence for
sufficiently long periods of time is well nigh impossible.

Over the past decade, however, growing evidence suggests

that certain biological systems might employ quantum
mechanics. In photosynthesis, for example, quantum
effects help plants turn sunlight into fuel. Scientists have
also proposed that migratory birds have a quantum
compass enabling them to exploit Earths magnetic fields
for navigation, or that the human sense of smell could be
rooted in quantum mechanics.

Fishers notion of quantum processing in the brain broadly

fits into this emerging field of quantum biology. Call it
quantum neuroscience. He has developed a complicated
hypothesis, incorporating nuclear and quantum physics,
organic chemistry, neuroscience and biology. While his ideas
have met with plenty of justifiable skepticism, some
researchers are starting to pay attention. Those who read
his paper (as I hope many will) are bound to conclude: This
old guys not so crazy, wrote John Preskill, a physicist at the
California Institute of Technology, after Fisher gave a talk
there. He may be on to something. At least hes raising
some very interesting questions.

Matthew Fisher has proposed a way for

quantum effects to influence the workings of the brain.
(Courtesy of Matthew Fisher)

Senthil Todadri, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology and Fishers longtime friend and colleague, is
skeptical, but he thinks that Fisher has rephrased the central
questionis quantum processing happening in the brain?
in such a way that it lays out a road map to test the
hypothesis rigorously. The general assumption has been
that of course there is no quantum information processing
thats possible in the brain, Todadri said. He makes the
case that theres precisely one loophole. So the next step is
to see if that loophole can be closed. Indeed, Fisher has
begun to bring together a team to do laboratory tests to
answer this question once and for all.

***

Fisher belongs to something of a physics dynasty: His

father, Michael E. Fisher, is a prominent physicist at the
University of Maryland, College Park, whose work in
statistical physics has garnered numerous honors and
awards over the course of his career. His brother, Daniel
Fisher, is an applied physicist at Stanford University who
specializes in evolutionary dynamics. Matthew Fisher has
followed in their footsteps, carving out a highly successful
physics career. He shared the prestigious Oliver E. Buckley
Prize in 2015 for his research on quantum phase transitions.

So what drove him to move away from mainstream physics

and toward the controversial and notoriously messy
interface of biology, chemistry, neuroscience and quantum
physics? His own struggles with clinical depression.

Fisher vividly remembers that February 1986 day when he

woke up feeling numb and jet-lagged, as if he hadnt slept in
a week. I felt like I had been drugged, he said. Extra sleep
didnt help. Adjusting his diet and exercise regime proved
futile, and blood tests showed nothing amiss. But his
condition persisted for two full years. It felt like a migraine
headache over my entire body every waking minute, he
said. It got so bad he contemplated suicide, although the
birth of his first daughter gave him a reason to keep fighting
through the fog of depression.

Eventually he found a psychiatrist who prescribed a tricyclic

antidepressant, and within three weeks his mental state
started to lift. The metaphorical fog that had so enshrouded
me that I couldnt even see the sunthat cloud was a little
less dense, and I saw there was a light behind it, Fisher
said. Within nine months he felt reborn, despite some
significant side effects from the medication, including
soaring blood pressure. He later switched to Prozac and has
continuously monitored and tweaked his specific drug
regimen ever since.

His experience convinced him that the drugs worked. But

Fisher was surprised to discover that neuroscientists
understand little about the precise mechanisms behind how
they work. That aroused his curiosity, and given his
expertise in quantum mechanics, he found himself
pondering the possibility of quantum processing in the brain.
Five years ago he threw himself into learning more about the
subject, drawing on his own experience with antidepressants
as a starting point.

Since nearly all psychiatric medications are complicated

molecules, he focused on one of the most simple, lithium,
which is just one atoma spherical cow, so to speak, that
would be an easier model to study than Prozac, for instance.
The analogy is particularly appropriate because a lithium
atom is a sphere of electrons surrounding the nucleus, Fisher
said. He zeroed in on the fact that the lithium available by
prescription from your local pharmacy is mostly a common
isotope called lithium-7. Would a different isotope, like the
much more rare lithium-6, produce the same results? In
theory it should, since the two isotopes are chemically
identical. They differ only in the number of neutrons in the
nucleus.

When Fisher searched the literature, he found that an

experiment comparing the effects of lithium-6 and lithium-7
had been done. In 1986, scientists at Cornell
University examined the effects of the two isotopes on the
behavior of rats. Pregnant rats were separated into three
groups: One group was given lithium-7, one group was given
the isotope lithium-6, and the third served as the control
group. Once the pups were born, the mother rats that
received lithium-6 showed much stronger maternal
behaviors, such as grooming, nursing and nest-building, than
the rats in either the lithium-7 or control groups.

This floored Fisher. Not only should the chemistry of the two
isotopes be the same, the slight difference in atomic mass
largely washes out in the watery environment of the body.
So what could account for the differences in behavior those
researchers observed?

Fisher believes the secret might lie in the nuclear spin, which
is a quantum property that affects how long each atom can
remain coherentthat is, isolated from its environment. The
lower the spin, the less the nucleus interacts with electric
and magnetic fields, and the less quickly it decoheres.

Because lithium-7 and lithium-6 have different numbers of

neutrons, they also have different spins. As a result, lithium-
7 decoheres too quickly for the purposes of quantum
cognition, while lithium-6 can remain entangled longer.

(Lucy Reading-Ikkanda for Quanta Magazine)

Fisher had found two substances, alike in all important

respects save for quantum spin, and found that they could
have very different effects on behavior. For Fisher, this was a
tantalizing hint that quantum processes might indeed play a
functional role in cognitive processing.

***
That said, going from an intriguing hypothesis to actually
demonstrating that quantum processing plays a role in the
brain is a daunting challenge. The brain would need some
mechanism for storing quantum information in qubits for
sufficiently long times. There must be a mechanism for
entangling multiple qubits, and that entanglement must
then have some chemically feasible means of influencing
how neurons fire in some way. There must also be some
means of transporting quantum information stored in the
qubits throughout the brain.

This is a tall order. Over the course of his five-year quest,

Fisher has identified just one credible candidate for storing
quantum information in the brain: phosphorus atoms, which
are the only common biological element other than
hydrogen with a spin of one-half, a low number that makes
possible longer coherence times. Phosphorus cant make a
stable qubit on its own, but its coherence time can be
extended further, according to Fisher, if you bind phosphorus
with calcium ions to form clusters.

In 1975, Aaron Posner, a Cornell University

scientist, noticed an odd clustering of calcium and
phosphorous atoms in his X-rays of bone. He made drawings
of the structure of those clusters: nine calcium atoms and six
phosphorous atoms, later called Posner molecules in his
honor. The clusters popped up again in the 2000s, when
scientists simulating bone growth in artificial
fluid noticed them floating in the fluid. Subsequent
experiments found evidence of the clusters in the body.
Fisher thinks that Posner molecules could serve as a natural
qubit in the brain as well.

Thats the big picture scenario, but the devil is in the details
that Fisher has spent the past few years hammering out. The
process starts in the cell with a chemical compound called
pyrophosphate. It is made of two phosphates bonded
togethereach composed of a phosphorus atom surrounded
by multiple oxygen atoms with zero spin. The interaction
between the spins of the phosphates causes them to
become entangled. They can pair up in four different ways:
Three of the configurations add up to a total spin of one (a
triplet state that is only weakly entangled), but the fourth
possibility produces a zero spin, or singlet state of
maximum entanglement, which is crucial for quantum
computing.

Next, enzymes break apart the entangled phosphates into

two free phosphate ions. Crucially, these remain entangled
even as they move apart. This process happens much more
quickly, Fisher argues, with the singlet state. These ions can
then combine in turn with calcium ions and oxygen atoms to
become Posner molecules. Neither the calcium nor the
oxygen atoms have a nuclear spin, preserving the one-half
total spin crucial for lengthening coherence times. So those
clusters protect the entangled pairs from outside
interference so that they can maintain coherence for much
longer periods of timeFisher roughly estimates it might last
for hours, days or even weeks.

In this way, the entanglement can be distributed over fairly

long distances in the brain, influencing the release of
neurotransmitters and the firing of synapses between
neuronsspooky action at work in the brain.

***

Researchers who work in quantum biology are cautiously

intrigued by Fishers proposal. Alexandra Olaya-Castro, a
physicist at University College London who has worked on
quantum photosynthesis, calls it a well-thought hypothesis.
It doesnt give answers, it opens questions that might then
lead to how we could test particular steps in the
hypothesis.

The University of Oxford chemist Peter Hore, who

investigates whether migratory birds navigational systems
make use of quantum effects, concurs. Heres a theoretical
physicist who is proposing specific molecules, specific
mechanics, all the way through to how this could affect brain
activity, he said. That opens up the possibility of
experimental testing.

Experimental testing is precisely what Fisher is now trying to

do. He just spent a sabbatical at Stanford University working
with researchers there to replicate the 1986 study with
pregnant rats. He acknowledged the preliminary results were
disappointing, in that the data didnt provide much
information, but thinks if its repeated with a protocol closer
to the original 1986 experiment, the results might be more
conclusive.

Fisher has applied for funding to conduct further in-depth

quantum chemistry experiments. He has cobbled together a
small group of scientists from various disciplines at UCSB
and the University of California, San Francisco, as
collaborators. First and foremost, he would like to investigate
whether calcium phosphate really does form stable Posner
molecules, and whether the phosphorus nuclear spins of
these molecules can be entangled for sufficiently long
periods of time.

Even Hore and Olaya-Castro are skeptical of the latter,

particularly Fishers rough estimate that the coherence could
last a day or more. I think its very unlikely, to be honest,
Olaya-Castro said. The longest time scale relevant for the
biochemical activity thats happening here is the scale of
seconds, and thats too long. (Neurons can store
information for microseconds.) Hore calls the prospect
remote, pegging the limit at one second at best. That
doesnt invalidate the whole idea, but I think he would need
a different molecule to get long coherence times, he said. I
dont think the Posner molecule is it. But Im looking forward
to hearing how it goes.

Others see no need to invoke quantum processing to explain

brain function. The evidence is building up that we can
explain everything interesting about the mind in terms of
interactions of neurons, said Paul Thagard, a
neurophilosopher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario,
Canada, to New Scientist. (Thagard declined our request to
comment further.)

Plenty of other aspects of Fishers hypothesis also require

deeper examination, and he hopes to be able to conduct the
experiments to do so. Is the Posner molecules structure
symmetrical? And how isolated are the nuclear spins?

Most important, what if all those experiments ultimately

prove his hypothesis wrong? It might be time to give up on
the notion of quantum cognition altogether. I believe that if
phosphorus nuclear spin is not being used for quantum
processing, then quantum mechanics is not operative in
longtime scales in cognition, Fisher said. Ruling that out is
important scientifically. It would be good for science to
know.

Manifestation The
Mindspace of Quantum
Physics and Neuroscience
Manifestation - The Mindspace
of Quantum Physics and
Neuroscience
by Richard Boyd, Body Mind Psychotherapist,
Energetics Institute, Perth, West Australia

Copyright 2010
The concept of reality and the search for our ultimate reality has dogged
humans ever since we stood upright and noticed the starry heavens above
us. Much of our human existence is devoted to trying to make sense of our
place in the universe and the role and interaction we have within that
reality. Various schools of philosophical, spiritual and scientific thought
now exist which attempt to explain this dominant question of our human
existence.

At the dawn of the 21st century, mankind is faced with shedding the
shackles of the Industrial era and the paradigms of thinking that shaped
and constrained us all in that period of history. Perhaps the biggest
paradigm shift that has occurred has been the emergence of Quantum
Physics and what it tells us about the nature of ourselves and reality as we
perceive it. The whole concept of the idea that there is a fixed objective
reality out there and outside ourself, waiting to be discovered, as the
total picture of reality, is now dead.

The work throughout the 20th century by scientists and physicists such as
Einstein, Bohr, Wheeler, and Heisenberg, established that the mind or in
here, arises at the same time as the phenomenal world, or the out
there. Quantum theory now describes how we create our reality in every
moment as our mind influences the reality that pops from essentially
an infinite cloud of possibility that is energy entwined with
consciousness. This is the emptiness of the universe alluded to by all
esoteric spirituality. Quantum Physicists such as Fred Alan Wolf now
speculate on what is reality from these scientific principles.

Another key shift in reality has been the healing of the misconception that
the body and the mind are separate entities, and are primarily run on
separate processes. We now understand that the body and the mind are
the two sides of the one coin that is the Self, with the embodied part of us
being the gross form of energy that exists in inertia as matter, whilst the
mind is the more subtle and kinetic energy that exists in interdependence
with and through the body. The old 17th century Cartesian view of
ourselves that the mind and the body are separate is factually dead, but
still not permeating mass consciousness in society.

The final key shift in reality has been the discovery of cellular
consciousness as articulated by pioneering medical researchers such as
Candace Pert and Bruce Lipton. In the 20th century, Freud and the science
of Psychology developed the concept of the subconscious mind but
labored under the assumption and the then reality of the Cartesian
bodymind split. They developed the frameworks concerning the
subconscious as being a totally mental process or object. We now know
that the subconscious mind is at least partly located in the body. The
experiences of us all is written into our cells, and some impulses,
predispositions, tendencies and traits, inherited through our DNA. The
emerging science of Epigenetics is rewriting this part of the old fixed view
of our DNA.

The current view is we are nature via nurture or we are a reality that
stems partly from inheritance of our parents and lineage, and we are
partly a product of our environment and the experiences we have had in
our formative years. Cellular biology now understands that our genes have
two functions. The first is the classically described template function
which Charles Darwin theorized. Here this allows our genes to replicate,
making copies of themselves that are passed from generation to
generation. This is our nature in that nature vs. nurture debate and is
beyond our conscious human control.

The second function is the transcription function. This more recent

finding reveals that each cell in our body contains all our genes, but not all
those genes are turned on, or expressed. When a gene is turned on, it
makes a new protein that alters the structure and function of the cell.

Interestingly when the gene is turned on, information about how to make
these proteins is transcribed or read from the individual gene.
Importantly this process influenced by the mind of the person in terms of
what we do and think. Psychiatrist and researcher Eric Kandel has shown
that when we learn our mind affects which genes in our brain neurons are
transcribed, and so by extension we change our brains literally at a
physical level. This is an example of from mind to matter.

This is the first level of how the mind can manifest changes at a matter
reality, albeit at a cellular level. Given we have billions of cells there are
implications here for how this overall effect could be influencing our
overall bodily wellness or disease due to states of mind influencing the
creation and release of various types of transcribed genes.

In BodyMind psychotherapy there is a clinical body of evidence that shows

how the mind of the child influences the developing body in terms of
musculature, body shape, posture etc. It is believed that this transcription
effect plays some part in the shaping of the characterology of a person.
Interested readers are referred to the 6 related articles on Characterology
on this website.

The real problem is that the old Industrial era false notions still have a
momentum in society that as yet has not been largely shifted, and inertia
exists which resists these new paradigms becoming the new global
consciousness or common reality. Look out the window right now. Do
you accept that what you see out there is largely derived from your mind
in this present moment? Do you also accept the possibility that the I that
is looking out through the window in this present moment, is a self that is
both at once neither the body or the mind, but also the highly
interdependent bodymind where there is only a subtle distinction
between the entity we call body and the entity we call mind ?

Also to expand on this idea further, do you accept that the concept of the
subconscious mind can be found nowhere else than in the body!!?
Chances are that you cannot grasp or embody that reality beyond forming
a temporary conceptual mind to understand these new ideas or views. In 5
minutes you will largely and subconsciously be acting from the old
embedded reality that you and most of society run our lives to, which are
the old and now increasingly discounted views of the Industrial era reality
mentioned above.

The purpose of this paper is to present some interesting summaries of

developments and theories on emerging paradigms of reality to describe
how we can actually take control and start to shape our life and reality
from a creative consciousness paradigm. This paper is designed to inform
the reader so they can start to shed themselves of the old paradigms of
reality that constrain us and create suffering, and to help accelerate the
ushering in of a new reality which empowers us all, and creates a basis for
wellness in society.

If you have watched What the Bleep Do We Know then this illustrative
documentary highlights how we are not really victims to life but are either
unconsciously or consciously affecting and creating our reality in every
moment. In this documentary we note that Quantum physics now states,
as do all the esoteric mystical religious traditions, that all things are
interconnected, interdependent, and essentially one or unified.

Quantum physics sees the universe as existing overall as energy, and this
energy exists in two forms, either in particle (having form), or as wave
(unformed or empty of form). Particles can be seen and observed at points
in time and space, and are the basis for the objects that we perceive in the
universe, or the conventional reality we are used to living and moving
through. This conventional reality does exist but not in the way we are led
to perceive it.
The atomic particles of matter are a very small and subtle manifestation of
this form of matter energy. Wave form energy is not particle based but is
wave form based. It can for instance be thoughts, sounds, mind images,
feelings, and other states of energy noted in quantum and mechanical
physics. Uniquely we humans possess both states of energy in our make-
up, and so have an inner wave-form energy world and life, which then
flows in and between our grosser, particle based body, which is the
conventional boundary we think is where we start and end as humans.

It is our perception that our physical bodily container is our self that gives
rise to our mistake that this is all we are, that this must be cherished and
the focus of ourself (the function of the ego), and leads to separation
consciousness where we think I and not we, and start to think of
everything outside of this I as both objective, and not our concern
unless it suits us.

The truth is that the embodied reality we call I gives us our definition of
time and space (mind gives us time, body gives us object space), and so
from this limited perceived particle form, gross body, we do become a
reality with a self imagined point in time and space. Man created time as a
concept, because our embodied reality puts us in a time-space continuum
where past, present, and future can be measured and perceived, and we
see ourselves progressing in a lineal fashion down a path of time.

In my related article Embodied Spirituality - Compassion and Care of

Oneself, I expand the definition of the Self to include our more energetic
and subtle aspects which have either a psychological(emotional or
mental), or spiritual expression and purpose. This 4 bodied basis is a
better representation of the human condition in respect to how we exist in
a duality expression of matter and energy consciousness.

Some theories in Quantum physics state however that what we really do is

keep choosing one single possible story line each moment in time,
whereas there are infinite choices in every moment that we can choose,
and each choice we make then opens up the next unlimited set of
possibilities for the next moment.

In these theories we are not on a pre-determined fate line, we

unconsciously or consciously choose the outcome in each moment, and
surprisingly sometimes the decision occurs in the present or past moment,
and the effect occurs in our future, and sometimes we get the effect in the
past or present, from a decision taken in the future, for past/present/future
all co-exist simultaneously, and each is interdependent on the other. Re-
read that line a few times as it took me quite a while to get my head
around it too!!

This is the aspect of reality that troubles and doubts anyone considering
our reality as we are conditioned to believe and expect a linear past to
future one-way continuum of reality. Events from the future which displace
or affect the past seem like Marty out of the Back to the Future Hollywood
movies. However these are current theories in quantum physics taken
seriously in some of their schools of thought.
In fact theorist and researcher Ken Wilbur (2002) sees the truth of how we
exist as being a matrix of 4 types of reality or truths. Truth is not as fixed
or objective as it would seem. Each type of truth expresses a different but
interconnected subset of reality. These truths are:

1) Objective

2) Subjective

3) Intrasubjective

4) Intraobjective

Quantum physics defines the way in which we are connected to the

universe is twofold. Firstly we exist beyond our gross particle body.
Science has now shown how we have a subtle energy bio-electric
subsystem running through and around the gross physical body. Man
operates in a typical zone of 62-78Hz frequency according to the Tainio
Technology instruments used to measure this bio-electric energy field.

Outside the physical body, there are increasingly subtle energy fields
which surround the body like a kernel or a set of Babooshka dolls as
explained in my article on the 4 bodies. Each functions to interact between
the body and the energy wave of the universe outside that bodily self we
perceive as being where we start and stop. This energy is in wave-form
and pulsates outwards like a ripple from a dropped stone in a pond into
the universe into which it is the subtle bridge between our gross body and
the universe. It is this that maintains our connectedness to all things.

Our human energetic vibrational consciousness is considered by healers

and esoteric philosophies to transmit outwards and affects the wave-form
like universe, as well as being our most subtle sense awareness that
picks up information from the universe and feeds it into our gross body
circuitry via cellular consciousness and our cellular receptors on our skin
cells. The outbound transmission from us is critical to our reality.

As Neuroscience tells us that our brain operates from images, and our
discrimination and cognition of objects gives rise to feelings, then think of
our reality as operating in a constant loop where we take-in our reality
from out there via all our sense awarenesses, process it via the mental
consciousness processes which use our nervous systems and brain neural
circuitry. These in turn give rise to feelings which are effects of cellular bio-
chemical reactions and pathways running in our body.

Our mind is believed to process the received sense awareness information

by accessing the hippocampus in the brain which holds an object image
database. Here it is now being considered that images and information is
somehow held on the bodys cellular hard drive(just like a hard drive on a
computer), about the object being perceived. Right at this point things can
get a little distorted. We all form conclusions and feelings to objects in our
universe. In Buddhism it is said that we form a factor of mind that sees all
objects as either desirous, neutral or negative. Most of these judgments
are formed from early life experiences and learned conclusions about such
objects.

If the brain held database conceptual image of the object being perceived
contains judgments or feeling triggers which are good or bad, the
consciousness of the person includes this extra body held information as
being part of the reality of the externally perceived object. This ingrained
extra information may be accessed via other more primitive parts of the
brain such as the amygdala which trigger states such as fear, terror,
anger, judgement, or bodily reactions such as sweating, shaking, muscular
tension, crying etc. This extra information pollutes our reality about that
object in the moment we perceive it, for that information is not part of the
objects reality, it is only part of our own internal personal learnt reality.

This process can be readily seen all the time in action. In fact art is built on
this premise. No two people will ever completely see the same thing in
an artwork, or agree to its meaning(for abstract pieces), as it is subjective
as every person pollutes their sense awareness information they receive
from the artwork, with whatever they hold internally about objects that get
either an exact or close fit to either an aspect of the perceived artwork
object, or the entire art piece itself.

In fact we do this polluting all the time, in every moment, to everything we

perceive. This is why none of us have an objective reality of anything, and
instead we have a subjective reality because of this inherent aspect of
how we function as human beings.

The bottom line is we are being bombarded with intense environmental

stimulus in the Information Age. We are overloaded and overstressed as
the pace of change and the required pace of adaptation to this change,
creates more and more burnout in society. This in turns then results in the
adoption of more and more medicating behaviours and addictions in an
attempt to deal with the pain and dissatisfaction being felt by so many in
society now.

Our slower evolutionary adaptive process cannot cope with the pace of
change demanded upon it. We are becoming more reactive and more
stressed from this place. Psychology has shown how stressed people
eventually can collapse into a victim mentality where life is simply what
happens to them. They lose their sense of control over life and how to take
back control of that life. Anxiety and then Depression often result for these
people.

The bottom line is we are still being bombarded with intense

environmental stimulus in the Information Age, and we are being hyper-
aroused by marketing and object/experience promotion by our own
society(e.g. drugs, pornography, Game consoles, reality TV), which work to
hook into some of these impulses that are increasingly driving our society.
We are suffering more and more, and our impulse to escape this suffering
is herding us more and more towards unhealthy choices which we actively
market and sell towards those who suffer. . The additional toxicity of our
food, air, and environments assaults the very bodymind self that must
cope with these demands. More and more people are collapsing under this
crisis of lifestyle.

If this was the complete story then that would be bad enough but it is only
half the picture. I have been talking about the reception of information via
the sense awarenesses from out there, or from the inherited emotional
and physical DNA we are born with or that we learn. This is the inward half
of the loop. The outward half of the loop actually starts at the same
moment we perceive the object as well.

What quantum physics is starting to propose in some quarters, and what

esoteric philosophies and spirituality has always proposed, is that the
human mind has the power to manifest or co-create the outcomes in our
own realities. This proposition works with the outward half of the loop of
reality creation.

Under some quantum physics theories and according to many schools of

esoteric mysticism, our mind and the object being perceived arise
together in the same moment. There is no universe nor any other object
out there which is just sitting around in particle form waiting for us to
discover it. Recent Quantum physics research into String Theory
supports this concept. Our mind causes the object to manifest in particle
form from a resting wave-form position, in dependence on the mind that
is observing it.

There are quantum physics principles around this idea known as The
Observer effect which are employed in all experiments at the sub-atomic
level. This implication is huge. If the mind of a person is responsible for the
object arising then does that imply that the state of the mind influences
the type of objects that actually arise and therefore create that persons
reality?

Before we consider this point lets describe how this reality manifestation is
believed to work. As already stated the mind and the auric field around the
body connect us to all other things in the universe, including the space
between objects. The mind energy of intention is the first movement of
mind. It is consciousness or unconsciousness in its first active movement
or principle. The wave-form energy created by this movement or motion
affects the energy around us, the universe around us that exists in its
empty form as waves with no actual form.

It is unformed, it is empty of form, it is just probability of being something,

and not just something, but the possibility of being every possible thing
that can possibly be conceived by a human mind, and then some. Mystics
call this the void, the cloud of unknowing, the emptiness, the cloud of
possibility. The key determining factor that makes one of the unlimited
possibilities of things that can arise from emptiness, from wave form
energy into form and substance, is the mind via its intention. In every
moment your mind creates the reality you see.

In this theory, there is no objective particle reality out there to be found.

All that happens from a quantum physics view is that an object or event
pops into life or form from the cloud of possibility, from the soup of wave
energy. At this point the energy goes from being wave-like, to being
particle form that has a basis in time and space.

Theorists are asked why the physical form does not then just revert back
to wave form when our attention goes elsewhere. Quantum physics
proposes that there must always be an observer mind or a measuring
device that keeps that point in time and space in particle form. Quantum
physics theorists argue that any sentient being with consciousness, even
insects, possibly fulfill this requirement, and the strange criteria of
measurement devices seems to include some abstract criteria as well. In
any event this matrix of such observing or measuring entities or conditions
creates the basis why all objects can be consistently found at a point in
time and space repeatedly, which is the usual reality we observe and
participate in.

It is not the full picture of reality though, even though it reliably means
that our experience in space and time is able to be consistent and hence
taken in as absolute and fixed. Time and space only exist because our
mind which creates the object, believes in time and space, and so we
create that too. The hippocampus part of the brain is believed responsible
for the lineal time based storage of memories.

The created object or event which pops out of wave form into particle
form is sometimes called the probability or probable object. It was the
most likely choice of the infinite choices that could have arisen. The
objects that you stumble across that have already popped into reality
courtesy of anothers observing mind or from some measuring device will
be readily perceived by you in the same point in time and space as
another person. As already explained you may perceive the object
differently, and have different feelings about it than another person, but as
an object you will both perceive the same named object.

An object already present at a fixed point in time and space will always
appear in the same spot when your mind perceives that same point in
space at another time, unless something else has changed or shifted the
object in another point in time, to another point in space. Objects are
real in this sense, its just the sense that they exist in both particle and
wave-form states, and that the mind plays a part in the object arising in its
place, that is the key part missed by the common classical science
understanding of reality.

This view of how we possibly create reality is extremely important to

grasp. If we create our reality then we are doing it from our mind. Our
mind can observe from an unconscious place, or from a conscious place.
These are the two primary states of the bodymind. Both apparently have
the same creative effect.

The nature of the human condition is that most of us live much of our lives
from a reactive unconscious state of mind. For example how many times
have you driven somewhere and when having arrived, have you
forgotten the journey you took to get there? This is the dull unconscious
state of mind that many of us lapse into for much of the time. From this
place we accept and experience the world as an objective reality that just
happens to us.

We are ignorant of the fact that we can influence and possibly create our
own reality. Instead many become victims who actually are unaware of
how they may be creating an unconscious reality in every moment without
realizing it. We moan about how our lives unfold, unaware that we create
it. The opposite of this is the conscious appreciation that we create our
reality in every moment, and then set about doing just that from a clear
and positive intention.

This is Creation Psychology or Creation Spirituality that books have been

written about. This is the basis of much of Shamanism. This is
enlightenment spoken about in Buddhism where one is awakened and
sees directly the emptiness of the universe, and sees the energy shifts
between wave-form and particle form as mere dream like phenomena, and
where one stands outside of time and space as a lineal reality that our
minds wrongly project.

It means that the fixed and inanimate objects still appear as before, but
we can actually create new experiences and new objects that are not
yet manifest or real in a given time at a given point in space. The wave-
form energy can be influenced consciously via intention by our mind to
pop a different reality than what would be the case than if we left to
chance how the same process occurs anyway with an unconscious mind
with regards to how we create our reality.

Principally we must transform ourself from being unconscious to more fully

conscious if we are to take control of our reality. This is firstly a process of
overcoming our inward loop distortions, obstacles and reactive victim
thinking where we often refuse to take responsibility for our lives. From a
place of responsibility there are techniques and processes, as well as
mindful realities that one needs to adopt to go from the victim who
describe the world they see towards a person who sees the world they
describe. One goes from a victim to one who manifests, from a fate to a
destiny, from unconscious to conscious life.

The word projection is critical here. The process and act of projection is a
big part of the illusion that we create for ourselves. The outbound part of
the loop of connecting our mind with an object involves projection from us
onto the object. If our mind creates the first movement in this loop, and
our sense awarenesses then receive the object in the next moment, then
once the mind has processed that sense awareness input, retrieved the
internal bodymind database of information about the object, we now have
within our human condition such energy states as discrimination,
awareness, feeling, judgement, and other information laden conscious
mental factors up and running.

Critically in the next moment we actually project much of that extra

information back out onto the object by our mind, regardless of the fact
that this information did not come from the object, but came from within
us, and the fact that this information can be very distorted.
When the object gets all this projected upon it, then in the next moment
we make an even worse unconscious action. We re-read through all our
incoming sense awarenesses not only the original naked object
information from the object out there, but we recycle all the projected
extra information back inside us again as objective input from the object.
This is the basis for ignorance and suffering.

The problem is we unconsciously believe that ALL this information exists

from the side of the object, and do not even see how we are recycling our
own stuff after having projected extra information back onto the object
in our discrimination process. This is a vicious cycle that continues as long
as we continue to engage with the object. It doubly fools us as the extra
information originally came from our own internal bodymind database.

When we re-receive it again unconsciously and without knowing it, it maps

directly to what we believe we know about such objects, and our internal
bodymind object database confirms this, and we reinforce our beliefs
about this object from a false place. This is what creates self sustaining
patterns of behaviour based on a belief that all encounters with similar
object give feedback consistent with all previous experiences of that same
object. In therapy one hears absolute statements such as all men are
bastards!!, All dogs look dangerous!!, All spiders are scary and make me
freeze!!.

If that was the end of the endless reality-loop of information receipt and
projection onto objects that we engage in, that would be bad enough. But
consider this. Such repeated and sustained experiences create ingrained
defences in us to ward off experiencing negative experiences with such
objects in the future. Over time this in itself becomes unconscious and
even shows up as chronic somatisation in the body. The body being part of
the bodymind will show a manifestation of that negative defence in the
body via postures, muscular development, energy disposition in the body,
and eventually states of health. Refer to the Characterology section of this
website for 6 separate articles on this BodyMind science.

Our physical reality modifies itself to ward off the challenges we believe lie
out there. The big trick or big lie is we are actually creating the basis for
attracting these same negative experiences towards us as a lifetime
pattern due to the way in which mind creates all the objects in its personal
reality. The rationale is that if our mind creates the objects we encounter
out there then it creates the very experiences we have with those
objects as well. This is because apart from the first moment when
intention is the primary wave-form energy that creates the probable
object from the energy cloud of all infinite possibilities, from then on our
projection of our stuff subtly changes the characteristics of that object
first perceived.

So if we see a person who we name as being a man, then depending on

what our internal bodymind database holds as information about men, the
next moment subtly changes the man object to be a bastard man
object, unsafe or abusing man object, alcoholic man object etc. How
does this come about beyond the projection we spoke about earlier. Think
of it like this, part of our internal database information is the equivalent of
a conclusion about the nature of that type of object. If the conclusion
has a negative emotionally charged energy state, we will at some level
have a defence against it.

For example, by having a defence against bad men objects we create

the basis in the brain to activate a hyper vigilance in the bodily
Autonomic and central nervous system to scan and detect these externally
to us. The rear two sections of the brain, the primitive amphibian and the
limbic parts of the brain are noted as controlling our bodymind database
which includes primitive fear and anger states. This is wired into the
bodymind via the Autonomic Nervous System(ANS) in sympathetic mode,
and via neurochemical pathways of neuropeptides and receptor
molecules. This process can create the basis for a person becoming
addicted to emotional states.

The defence in the body includes whichever emotional energy it is wired

to and can have an unfortunate effect. It turns you into a huge energy
transmitter of that negative wave-form energy co-joined or mixed with the
information or thought energy about the object triggering you. So maybe
you transmit a mix of the negative emotional state of fear plus
additional internal bodymind information/conclusion that all men rip me
off. The net effect is that this becomes your unconscious intention in the
next moment, and you then create the basis to pop from the infinite
possible combination of men out there, one you fear and one who
eventually rips you off.

Remember reality is subjective. Whether you really need to fear that man
or whether he really rips you off is subjective. He may be someone to fear
and he may rip you off, or you may just project your fears onto him, and
end up having a distorted belief that he ripped you off. It does not matter.
All that matters is that reality delivers to your stated but unconscious
intention that you transmit from your energy field. This is the basis of what
we call self sabotage in therapy. We set ourselves up to get
disappointed, to get betrayed, used or abused, or to fail, but fail to see
how we create this, instead become victims and then see the world and
others out there doing it to us, or doing us over. We feel powerless and
victimized in this place.

The universe is neutral. You can have it all or have nothing, it is up to you.
The universe has no favourites. It merely delivers to what you request of
it, regardless of whether you do that unconsciously or consciously, in
every single moment. The universal law of attraction does not seem to
recognize ones attitude to an object, just the object itself. By this I mean
that if you wish for an object or experience to happen then it is the focus
on the object, and not the positive feeling that creates the object. Likewise
if one wishes to avoid an object or experience and thinks in this negative
way, then one still attracts the object, because it is the object focus that
counts, and not the feeling toward the object.

Your mind creates your reality and you are the creator of your subjective
reality and no-one else. Theology states that God is within you from this
co-creator perspective. The only fate is that which you create, and you are
only a victim because you are ignorant of cause and effect. It is not a
willful process, for you already create now in every moment without
needing to engage in willfulness.
What one can do is make this whole process conscious and give it focus
and intention. This is both a conscious intention setting and a letting go,
an act of faith rather than will, a surrender to this whole creative process
and cycle, and a constant retuning based on observed effects from what
manifests out there in our world. The timing of the object
manifesting in front of us has personally more to do with the power of
positive intention versus its polar opposite power of negative intention or
negative pleasure as it is also known.

Quantum physics states that its known laws will also interact and also
influence the final outcome so external factors also play a key role. This is
not widely talked about in New-Age explanations of manifestation but
Quantum Physics acknowledges a number of influences, dynamics, and
laws that operate within the realm of an object popping into particle
reality from the quantum field. The mind or Observer Effect is important
but not the only driver, but is the factor within our control.

All of us have a momentum in this (and previous lifetimes if you believe in

reincarnation) that propels our bodymind forward in a time-space
continuum. That momentum contains negative and positive energy states
within our bodymind object due to our illusion of duality, the illusion of the
separate in here or I reality and the out there or You duality. Duality
means dual reality. Any positive intention causes an equal and opposite
negative intention to arise, whether they both occur in consciousness or
whether the positive intention occurs in consciousness, and negative
intention occurs in unconsciousness is not important. All occur in the
bodymind container of our human condition.

The key to stepping into the creator archetype is a fourfold for most of
us. The key disciplines outlined below are those which work on:

empowering our energetic container of self

relaxing the bodymind component

those which cleanup distortions in the reality loop we have been

describing

the visualization or intention process which activates the probability

component of the quantum collapse of wave-form into particle form
reality

Empowering our Energetic Container of Self

We often describe the human condition in terms of having 4 bodies. The

first is the physical body, and the other 3 bodies are energetic in nature,
they being the emotional, mental and spiritual body. In essence we say
that whatever attributes the last 3 bodies hold and whatever processes
they enact, have its roots in the energetic reality of ourself. For this reason
we believe that attending to the health of the all 4 bodies is a part of
being healthy. Please refer to my article Embodied Spirituality -
Compassion and Care of Oneself for more information in this general area
of empowering and creating energetic charge, health and flow in the body.

In terms of influencing the manifestation of our reality it involves

increasing the volume or power of our personal bodymind transmitter,
which is the bio-electric energy field that runs through as well as
surrounding the body. In human beings there is a relationship between the
breath and our energy field. A key linked concept is that the deeper the
breathing the more powerful our energy field.

Western society has a universal complaint of its people breathing in a very

shallow fashion. The shallow nature of breathing is a known outcome of a
person having lived in the Sympathetic mode or fight and fight mode of
their Autonomic Nervous System(ANS) for sustained periods of time. This
is the bodily level defence which cuts off the fuel to the bio-electric energy
system of the bodymind as a side-effect of its cutting off the conscious
appreciation of feelings flowing through the body.

It is a means to an end for it results in suppression of feeling and

awareness in the body, and the reason we do this at all is often we had
feelings and experiences in and with our bodies in childhood that created
suffering and painful emotional states. In an attempt to fend off the
repeated experience of such suffering and painful emotions our bodymind
intuition knew to cutoff the breath so we ceased to feel and be aware of
such states of being. Our bio-electric energy also retreated upward into
the head where the primitive Autonomic Nervous System(ANS) kept us in
sympathetic mode hyper vigilence as an allied defence to ward off such
threats.

So we now all typically have compromised, blocked and stuck bio-electric

energy systems which cannot transmit with the power and clarity to help
us naturally step into our Creator archetypes. Defended people normally
live in their heads in fear, and the mental recurrent thinking that creates
analysis paralysis in an attempt to control and think the right way
forward in life. Many will adopt the Victim ,Controller, Perfectionist
or the Abuser archetypes as a consequence of the fear they believe
dictates their reality. The Creator is suppressed by all of these stances
we typically adopt, and the required ability to be able to step back,
observe, and let go, cannot occur from a person stuck in a fear based,
hyper vigilant, hardwired ANS and bodymind container.

The way forward for many here is to embrace either Bioenergetics

exercises, Qi-Gong(chi gung), Chiropractic treatments which utilize the
breath such as Network Spinal Analysis (NSA), or key yoga systems which
emphasize the breath. Deep tissue massage may be needed to unlock
chronic spastic or contracted muscles which result from shallow breathing
over a long period of time.

Relaxing the BodyMind Component

The second key to being able to influence our manifesting reality is to be

in a relaxed Parasympathetic Nervous System state of the ANS. In
Buddhism we often attribute this state to being in a supple state of body
and mind which settles the mind and allows for stable meditation or
visualization and concentration. The key related disciplines here are
meditation, yoga, mindfulness, and deep tissue massage or other
supporting modalities of nurturance and resolution of stressed states.

This is a prerequisite before we can conduct the third step, which is to

cleanup the bodymind circuitry and also the bodymind internal database
content so that we transmit and vibrate our positive intention with clarity
and power. This requires a bodymind system that is healthy and
undefended, operating from the Limbic and frontal brain nodes, wired to
the ANS in its relaxed parasympathetic nervous system.

For more detailed information on Meditation, yoga, and mindfulness I refer

you to the article on this website entitled Meditation and Mindfulness
Strategies. In terms of massage I recommend each person find a qualified
massage practitioner who can sympathetically understand your bodily
defences at the postural and muscular level, and work with you to correct
these and release these over time.

Cleanup Distortions in the Reality Loop

The third key is to cleanup the bodymind circuitry and also the
bodymind internal database content so that we transmit and vibrate our
positive intention with clarity and power. We must get to work raising
consciousness of ourself so we start to intervene and take inventory of
what the bodymind internal database is putting into our reality loop.

We need to have conscious intervention into this loop so we can start to

see our distorted belief systems and then pull back the projections we
have onto all objects external to ourself. This means we cut the projected
material out of the reality loop and start to see objects from a less
distorted place, and in turn do not experience the negative emotional
states that often accompany them. We start to own our reality and see
how we set it all up as a self perpetuating illusion. We start to break this
cycle of victimhood that entraps many in life.

The previous mentioned practices of meditation and mindfulness are

critical aspects of gaining this self-awareness and intervention into the
reality loop process. This has traditionally been the Eastern view of
correcting our psychology as it were and is a slow but proven system
that brings many benefits to its adherent.

In the Western view, psychology has been the traditional attempt in recent
times to clean up our mental and emotional distortions, using traditional
mentally based observation and behavioural intervention techniques.
Various therapies and approaches, including bodymind focused solutions
have evolved over time.

The deep emotional work that IBMP embraces to uncover and express the
lower self(read Jungian shadow self) emotions has the effect of releasing
deep and transformative energy into the energy system, as well as
rewriting the bodymind internal database. This rewiring process must
occur with the bodymind in a fully charged energetic state, with
consciousness in present time rather than caught up in the old loop
reality. This will purge the bodymind of negative material and take it out
of the old reality-loop explained earlier.

The person starts to heal and their reality changes to the positive
accordingly to the amount of negative bodymind wired material they are
prepared to confront and release. This, together with an increasingly
powerful energetic transmitter will propel a person towards a new positive
reality, release old negative patterns from their current reality, and allow
them to step into their Creator archetype over time. Deep therapy
therefore involves firstly the recovery from the distorted and wounded
loop-reality we have setup for ourselves, and then a second stage of re-
patterning or stepping into our Creator archetype.

The great myths and stories from all ages and societies tell of the Hero
who must set out on a great challenge which has the threat of death, and
in prevailing he finds a treasure or precious object, perhaps once lost,
which bestows the wisdom and power to become the Creator or true
hero. This is the process of deep therapy which faces that dark and
disowned lower or shadow self, so we can emerge into our higher self
Creator/Hero archetype. We must face our darker bestial natures that in
myth is represented by Pan and Hermes, and integrate them into our
collective personality and Self. We face rather than continue to disown our
shadow or lower self.

If one tries to skip the confrontation of our shadow natures first step and
go straight to the second step of trying to be the creator, as is the
fashion with many new age therapies, one is doomed to fail. Refer to my
article The Concept of Soul in Therapy and in Life for more information on
the failure of many therapies to confront or heal the shadow self in
mankind.

If one tries to bypass our essential shadow self, one needs to use a
forcing current to sustain any new change via the conscious will, but
typically this often means the ego also easily delude themselves by
adopting a new defence that they are healed, and now some form of
creator. If you mix the power of the Creator archetype with an
unhealed Shadow self bodymind, you are creating the archetype of the
Sorcerer or Magical Abuser. Many people fear facing their lower or
shadow self for the pain of going into the original wounds, but it cannot be
avoided to heal the defences and distortions we have built up over time,
and to release the energies that is locked up in them.

The Visualization or Intention Process of Co-creation or

Manifestation

As one can now see, the path to being a manifesting person or co-creator
with the universe is not a simple or easily available one. Unfortunately one
cannot live a coach potato existence, then one night per week put on a
DVD about The Secret or any other of the offered and packaged
solutions to manifesting that the New Agers promote and flog with great
success. If they had to spell out the hard work to clearing the obstacles
and blocks in the BodyMind to being able to fully utilize or give effect to
the tools they offer to the purchaser, many would pass as its all just too
hard for many.

Given we live in an age of laziness and lack of discipline, coupled with the
panacea and demand for the instant quick fix, it is no wonder many
transformation gurus have sprung up to offer inviting and simplistic
solutions. The tools and processes they offer are in many cases sound, but
there is normally a missing context, and that is the blocks and obstacles
that naturally arise in a person wanting to step into such a spiritual
discipline. Marketing pressures dictate that any negative or overhead that
accrues to a product or service purchase in our society, be downplayed or
put into fine print, as it gets in the way of selling the appeal and image of
the product or service. Spiritual products and services are marketed no
differently in my opinion.

Ultimately the work of becoming a conscious co-creator in the universe is

in the realm of Creation Spirituality which empowers the person to see
their interconnectedness to all things, to act in this way, and to become an
active and positive co-creator with the universe. The western tradition of
Creation Spirituality under such mystics as Thomas Merton, Thomas
Moore, St John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart and works such as The Great
Cloud of Unknowing are a solid basis on which to turn ones mind to
reshaping ones outlook and reality on life. It is also a useful path to
develop and cultivate higher states of consciousness such as compassion,
love and the wisdom of seeing the truth of the interconnectedness of all
things.

The eastern path that best serves this purpose is Buddhism, and in
particular the Mahayana Buddhist schools of thought. The teachings on
emptiness are a direct correlation to many aspects of the quantum physics
views expressed in this article, and other teachings on loving-kindness,
compassion, understanding the mind, and Buddhist Cosmology give deep
and powerful frameworks from which to develop Creator archetypes within
oneself, and to remove bodymind internal database old states of
information.

In both the western and eastern traditions the primary method of

rewriting consciousness and developing the creator reality is based on
meditative or contemplative practice. In quantum physics the body gives
us a location in space, and the mind which creates the concept of time,
gives us our point in time. The process of visualization meditation tricks
our reality-loop by putting into the reality loop new information that we
consciously create and feed into this process.

Science has already shown that our mind does not discriminate between
what our senses read in from the external environment, and what our
mental awareness consciousness creates in meditation, visualization or
contemplation. Both are as real as each other to the mind. Given the mind
works in images, then the most powerful of these techniques is creative
visualisation. Here the meditator creates a mental picture of a reality and
tries to sustain that image in a stable and concentrated way in their mind.
A parallel thought process that analyses this reality and then draws a
conclusion about that reality, which one then places all concentration on,
is another way of rewriting the bodymind internal database. It has been
proven over thousands of years by numerous cultures to effect deep
changes in the body and the mind over time.

Recent advances in Neuroscience also support these meditative practices.

Neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone proved in studies that when human
beings learn a new skill, plastic changes occur in the brain by
strengthening existing neuronal connections, or by creating new neuronal
pathways and connections. His studies showed that those who do a short
sharp burst of study or practice, such as trying to manifest, will feel some
initial gain as the brain channels that skill through existing neural
pathways in a plastic way. However such gains are quickly lost and the
skill does not stay embedded as the neural pathways used are not
dedicated to that task, but are guns for hire in that moment that
accomplish the task, and then go on to some other task.

Real change involves slow and regular committed practice that actually
signals the brain to create new pathways and new connections, which will
test the person as they feel inertia, resistance, and slow progress while the
neural re-organisation is undergone. This is the basis to changing existing
neural pathways of our BodyMind distortions from childhood and to create
new realities. Sustained practice solidifies learning and rewrites existing
neural circuits with new connections(conclusions and associations).
Thoughts create the basis for material changes in our brain.

Pascual-leone showed in studies that people who did visualization practice

of playing a piano or doing gym workouts, when compared to people who
did the physical equivalent of those same practices, showed the same
brain changes in the same regions of their brains, and developed
competencies similar but not as great as those who did the physical
version of those exercises. When the visualization group then did the
physical exercise they only needed one-third of the time to reach the same
physical aptitude as those who relied solely on physical means.

In an activity that is solely about our mental and energetic impact on the
quantum field then the visualization method is the beginning and the end
of this type of process. From a neuroscience point of view, imagining and
act and doing an act involve the same motoric and sensory areas of the
brain. Visualizing an object tricks the brain into thinking you are really
seeing the object. This is the start of manifesting. Create the image or
intention and let the brain change your experience of reality so you feel
that it is real. All change must firstly come from inside us before it can
objectively start to be manifested out there.

We have already adopted this reality of the mind to intercept the reality
loop and decode electrical signals into machine instructions that
mechanically create the reality out there. By this there are now
machines which paraplegic people use to tap into their thoughts and
translate their intentions into commands for the machine to do simple
activities such as driving a PC mouse, or move an object, or turn a
wheelchair into a new direction or alter its speed. Manifesting our reality is
already occurring via using our reality loop in a bio-mechanical way.
Imagination and action are truly integrated in the brain/mind paradigm of
us humans. In a spiritual sense it is often said that the universe is in the
grain of sand, or that the universe is in inside of us. What I think those
mystics are saying is that the laws or mechanics that drive our own
personal realities are microcosms of what drives the universe on its
majestic scale. If that is the case then how imagination drives action would
have its parallel in how imagination/intention can drive manifestation at
the universal level. The mathematical patterns of the universe may then
exist from the microcosm of us up until the macrocosm of the universe.

Neuroscience also puts forward a powerful argument as to why the

practice of imagining and visualisation can effect changes within the
person conducting such a practice. Neuroscience researchers such as
Pascuel-Leone (Doidge:2008) note that mental imagery, visual images,
and bodily actions can all activate the same motor programs in the brain.
Thinking of an object, looking at the object, and actually physically
interacting with the object, can cause the neuroplasticity of the brain to
create new and repetitious neural pathways in the brain.

Our plastic brain is perpetually altered by every physical encounter, and

every visual or imagined interaction. The practice of visualisation and
intention can create good habits, and also our current unconscious habits
which are not all good, are having the same effect in our brains, notes
Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich (Doidge:2008).

The brain structure that regulates instinctive drivers and behaviours is the
Hypothalamus(Doidge:2008). It is plastic like the rest of the brain and
will utilise a lose it or use it principal on key drives in the body. Habit
repetition enlarges the pathways for more of the same habitual activity
and enlarges brain maps or circuits used to activate such
drives(Doidge:2008). New realities and new habits are learned or
acquired as the brain is exposed to novel or exciting experiences, much
like how visualisation and meditation stimulate the brain centres and
shapes the creation of new neural circuits. These circuits then feed into
the reality loop.

Neuroscientists have shown via research that an early life, emotionally

charged event can have laid down into the brain of a child the potentiality
for the later adult to respond with a strong addictive charge to a seems
like feels like re-enactment of such an event. This is why we have so
many conditioned mind scripts from childhood that may be mal-adaptive
and no longer serving us as adults. These mind scripts which create our
attitudes, beliefs, reasoning and conclusions about ourself, others, and
life, are those which currently serve as information in the reality loop to
create our current reality, whether good or bad.

In neuroscience any possible formative experience will shape the brain

that will later shape a persons identity via neural pathways. Creating a
deepening of neural pathways and imbedding new neural pathways is best
achieved by the person generating deep emotional states around the
object they are envisioning. Neuroscience shows that such an emotionally
charged state is responsible for creating the basis for a deepening of that
persons neural circuit and impulses towards a possible intention or reality
This use of emotion in meditation and visualisation then releases GABA
and opiate like endorphins which neuroscience now tells us provides the
protein and chemical basis for the laying down of new neural connections.
The brain always responds to what it believes is positive behaviours for
this chemical reason.

Merencich(2008) and Doidge(2008) argue that our brains are being

reshaped by the highly stimulated nature of society, with consequences
for that persons neural connections and their reality by becoming wired
up to these sensations without a conscious intent to do so, or becoming
hooked after voluntarily doing so. For example, a 2001 American
MSNBC.com survey found that 80 per cent of viewers felt they were
spending so much time on internet pornography sites as to be putting
either their relationships or jobs at risk. These viewers had stumbled
onto adult pornography sites, become addicted, and now were
compulsively doing so without being able to control their impulses.

We are all being unconsciously shaped each day by the assault on our
senses within the highly visual, over stimulated nature of our
experiential focused society. Not all these changes are good for us, not
all of the trends in society are understood in terms of neural changes they
create within us, and they all work with the same mechanisms that one
would use to consciously create positive change in ones life.

The opposite pole or position of using the mental processes actively to

create change, is the natural state of dreaming during sleep. When we are
asleep and dreaming, the only sense consciousness still operating is the
mental subconscious process, where via images our dreams arise during
sleep. This shows the image based reality of the mind or mental
consciousnesses. Many people do not remember their dreams but they
effectively are processing information found in their subconscious about
themselves and their reality. Images and symbols are used to convey
truths as the subconscious cannot lie.

Intriguingly the concept of space and time are believed to dissolve during
sleep as these are conscious states of mental reality. Under quantum
physics theoretically we should have access from this dreaming state have
access to past, present and future states, experiences and information.
Dreams are often the basis for premonitions about future events. There
are recorded instances of a person dreaming of a past setting where they
hide something, which upon waking they actually are able then able to go
and uncover and describe with great accuracy. This information could not
have been known from other sources.

These documented accounts seem to support this quantum physics

principle. Dreams are a rich source of material for therapists and give
access to deep inner truths that the subconscious may be trying to make
conscious, or the dream may state the truth of where someone is at in
an aspect of their life. This information is the same information feeding
into that persons reality loop from an unconscious source within
themselves.

It is my belief that the bodymind based therapy approach combined with a

meditation approach, can achieve deep results for westerners over a
shorter space of time than if only therapy or only spirituality approaches in
isolation are adopted. This combination of techniques is able to assist in
the reality shift from the unconscious to the conscious, and from the victim
to the creator. This path will transform the negative and aggressive lower
self energies into the personal energy field so that they become positive
aggression energy for strengthening the energy field, and therefore
strengthening the personal transmitter of ones intention to the universe.

The therapy model was never required in eastern culture as they never
suffered a bodymind split in thinking, culture, science or lifestyle. As the
East has embraced the Western approach we are now in this generation
starting to see the same dysfunctional outcomes and illnesses of
bodymind in easterners that have plagued the west for the last 150 years.
For example, depression was largely unheard of in eastern cultures until
about the last 20 years.

Bodymind health calls on a break from the limited reality we all can so
easily and unconsciously fall into, and worse still, fall back into if not
vigilant. Spirituality, like any form of development needs to be viewed as a
journey and a process, not a milestone or event or endpoint focused
endeavour. Neuroscience points to this long term reality as being the basis
of ingrained and sustained learning.

For you to become a conscious co-creator or a manifesting person, the

required changes must actually become part of your reality and so
becomes a constant, a part of who you are, not just something you do, for
else you create a new split in yourself between you and your
spirituality. This is another duality, another split, and to be avoided. The
principles of Neuroscience and Quantum physics can be seen to underpin
much of IBMP theory and application. In Buddhism the non-dual and direct
acquisition of a truth is called a realization, and replaces more temporary
conceptual minds about the same idea or truth.

Quantum Physics is still an evolving discipline that looks at universal

truths and the implications that arise from these truths. Man today, more
than ever needs a way out of the suffering caused by the flawed belief
systems, institutions, sciences and social norms that are underpinned by
Cartesian thinking, and the separateness we increasingly find our lives
being contracted into, with the pain that we try and hide with damaging
addictions, coping behaviours from anxious and depressed minds.

The gift of the paradigm shift that Quantum physics offers, and of the
synergy that IBMP bodymind psychotherapy brings to the breaking down
of old ways, as well as the empowering man as his own creator, in line
with this Quantum physics view, is a unique gift to mankind at this point in
his/her evolution. The creation of a mind that observes reality with
conscious presence, and clear intention, is a powerful force. It is but one
input into the quantum collapse process that works along the lines of
probability causing the popping of wave form into particle form reality.

It is not the sole attribute or only influencing principle, and its not easy to
get to such a place, as the New Agers and Transformation guru conmen
would say and market their claims around. It is however a far better place
to live from than from that place of being unconscious or a victim in life.
As the great Buddhist saint Shanti Deva states who you are is what you
have practiced before, and who you will be is what you practice now.
Ultimately its all up to you!!

If you would like to make conscious your reality, and work through
distortions in your reality loop, or attend to your BodyMind
health, please feel free to contact the Energetics
Institute. Richard Boyd is an experienced Body Mind
Psychotherapist and the Director of the Energetics Institute in
Perth, Western Australia. Mob 04075773

email: r.boyd@energeticsinstitute.com.au

www.energeticsinstitute.com.au

References

1. The Brain that Changes Itself, Doidge Norman M.D., 2008, Scribe
Publications, Carlton Australia.

2. Mapping the Mind, Carter Rita, 2003, Phoenix Books, London.

3. The Web of Life, Capra Fritjof, 1996, Anchor books, New York.

4. Think of an Elephant Combining Science and Spirituality for a Better

Life, Bailey Paul, 2007, Watkins Publishing London.

5. On Purpose A New Way of Thinking for the New Millennium, Birch

Charles, 1990, New South Wales University Press.

6. The Spiritual Universe One Physicists View of Spirit, Soul, Matter,

and Self, Wolf Fred Alan PHD, 2000, Moment Point Press, USA.

7. Mind into Matter A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit, Wolf Fred
Alan PHD, 2001, Moment Point Press, USA.

8. Matter into Feeling A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit, Wolf Fred
Alan PHD, 2002, Moment Point Press, USA.

9. Quantum Evolution Life in the Multiverse, McFadden Johnjoe, 2000,

Flamingo Harper Collins, Great Britain.

10. Understanding the Mind An Explanation of the Nature and Functions

of the Mind, Gyatso Geshe Kelsang, 1997, Tharpa Publications, London.

11. Heart of Wisdom An Explanation of the Heart Sutra, Gyatso Geshe

Kelsang, 1996, Tharpa Publications, London.

12. The Creative Power of Imagery, Gawler Dr Ian, 1997, Hill of Content
Publishing Melbourne.
13. Molecules of Emotion The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine, Pert
Candace, 1999, Touchstone Book by Simon and Schuster New York.

14. The Biology of Belief Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter

and Miracles, Lipton Bruce PHD, 2005, Mountain of Love/Elite Books,
California.

15. The Healing Power of Mind Meditation for Well-Being and

Enlightenment, Thondup Tulku, 1997, Arkana Published by Penguin Group,
England.

16. Infinite Mind Science of Human Vibrations of Consciousness, Hunt

Valerie, 1996, Malibu Publishing Co, California.

17. Integral Psychology Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology. Therapy,

Wilber Ken, 2002, Shambhala Press, Boston and London.

18. What the Bleep Do We Know Down the Rabbit Hole, DVD, Numerous
Contributors, 2006.

How You Can Make

Quantum Mechanics
Actually Work (for your
Brain)!
in Article
February 21st, 2012

If you were to ask any reasonable person (or reasonable physicist) how quantum
mechanics works, 9 out of 10 times he/she would probably give you the same answer:
magic. Yes, the field of quantum physics is known far and wide across academia as being
both pretty difficult (lots of math) and pretty confusing (it just seems like it makes stuff up
as it goes). However, despite all the tedium and wizardry that surrounds quantum
mechanics, if you look hard enough at the many applications that the science has to offer
to other fields, you may quickly come to find that it is also pretty dang awesome. Indeed,
even the field of neuroscience has experienced some cross over with quantum physics in
an attempt to explain many of the mysteries of the mind. But, what specific oddities about
the brain are so opaque that they would need something as complex as physics black
magic to explain them?
What are the quantum mysteries of the mind?

Lets consider for a second some of the basic principles behind synaptic plasticity in
neurons. As any molecular or cognitive neuroscientist will tell you that the plastic nature
of connections in the brain is great, mainly because it lets your neurons tweak and
strength certain essential inputs and outputs, and remove (or prune) the ones that are
not so essential. If they were to go on, they would probably also tell you that neurons can
select the neuron-to-neuron connections that they preserve and remove based on the
strength of the signals that are being conducted through all those different connections.

Basic model of Hebbian learning/synaptic plasticity: Cells that signal together create
strong connections and stabilize; cells that signal weakly do not stabilize and are
eventually removed

In short (and to quote Donald Hebb), neurons that fire together, wire together and all
other signals/connections fade away over time. This all seems pretty intuitive, of course
neurons want to talk with other neurons from which they can actually get a decent signal!
The exact mechanism by which this occurs, however, is not altogether intuitive. Indeed,
since this form of wiring is so important in the brain for functions such as learning,
memory and general cell-to-cell communication, many neuroscientists are left asking just
what motivates it. More importantly though, if this event is essential to learning and
memory formation in the brain, do you have any control over how your brain decides
when to fire and what to wire to?
Quantum particles: impossibly small bundles of subatomic species and energy, or
highly concentrated balls of pixie dust?

Quantum theorists have attempted to explain this firing and wiring effect, along with the
influence that consciousness holds over what stays and what goes, by citing the quantum
zeno effect, a bizarre phenomenon first observed by particle physicists who were
attempting to observe the spontaneous decay of uranium. During their experiment, these
physicists would continuously make observations of the radioactive uranium particles to
observe the degradation. Amazingly, the researchers soon began to realize that
whenever they made continuous observations of the uranium, it would cease to decay
and instead appeared to freeze itself in a stable state! To ensure that they were all not
crazy (or suffering some form of radiation poisoning), the initial research team shared
these results with several colleagues who replicated them and observed the exact same
thing! It is now actually a relatively accepted fact in the realm of quantum mechanics that
rapid repeated measures of a quantal system will slow the fluctuation between quantal
states of any species within that system. Quite literally, this phenomenon seems to
validate the old saying that a watched pot never boils!

Do neurons, per say, utilize quantum locking as a defensive mechanism while

stalking intergalactic prey, or perhaps just to remain in one specific state for long
periods of time (had to give a shout out to the Doctor Who fans in this article)?

But how does all this quantum locking come back to neuroscience, and to cells firing
and wiring together for that matter? According to a new theory floating around that
combines both quantum mechanics and cognitive neuroscience, the determination of
neural circuit formation depends entirely on the quantum zeno effect. The way the effect
is achieved in the brain isnt through being camera shy like uranium, but instead through
simply being able to focus ones attention. As the theory states, the mental act of focusing
attention can stabilize the brain circuits that are associated with whatever one is focusing
on. So, if you were to receive a prick on your finger and you were then to focus all your
attention on it, the current state of your brain at the time would be maintained in order to
allow you to interpret the signaling associated with that event (i.e. feeling pain). Thus, in
terms of promoting Hebbian learning: the more you are able to direct your attention to
specific stimuli, the more readily all the neurons involved in the current response to that
stimuli will be able to fire and synapse to one another (thus promoting the strengthening
and solidifying of specific neural circuits)! While this model is definitely not without its
holes, the quantum zeno hypothesis does provide a very interesting way to consider how
the brain may handle bouts of conscious learning (or self-directed plasticity) and is able
to stabilize certain synaptic pathways. If anything, it hopefully provides us with a more
magical interpretation of the brain and how it completes its many whimsical tasks!

Everybody needs to know something about their brain. But who

wants to wade through a tedious textbook that tells you far more
than you want to know? This Core Ideas of Neuroscience also
probably tells you more than you want to know too. But it does not
cost anywhere near the $100 or more you would spend for a
traditional text. Moreover, my book is organized as modules
explaining the basic principles of 75 core ideas. You dont have to
wade through it. You can dance through it, easily getting up to
speed on just the few ideas you may need to know about at the
moment...