Coherence Fields in the Brain

Molecular biologist Johnjoe McFadden’s CEMI (conscious electromagnetic information) theory aptly describes EM field effects. In this model, the phenomena introspected as intentional agency arise from CEMI fields which influence neural networks on a macroscopic scale. Though the mechanism is still poorly understood, preliminary indications are that this synchronizing effect results from phase-locking mediated by the interaction of ion channels with overlapping EM fields, integrating holistically functional brain regions beyond what feedback loops alone can accomplish. Neurons that have adapted for pervasive phase-locking are involved in conscious brain processes, coordinating neural networks broadly enough to be what we experience as a motivational complex, while neurons which do not engage in phase-locking constitute unconscious processes. This accounts for some common observations about the way human minds work, notably that high arousal consciousness consists in serial processing as opposed to massive parallelism of the unconscious, explained as a disjunction of ultraintegrated CEMI fields from bordering EM fields, as well as the fact that we experience some degree of free will, in this model simply being identical to especially prominent EM field effects. It is the current author’s opinion that a construct such as CEMI theory can explicate the subconscious also, as a spectrum of low to high arousal evoked by relative breadth and saturation of phase-locking.

So EM field fluctuations ranging from the intraneuronal to macroscopic likely bind neural networks such that emergent functions of vision in the occipital lobe, analytical reasoning in the prefrontal cortex, etc. can be tightly orchestrated to evince holistic effects, manipulating the magnetic properties of atoms and molecules within large-scale flow shapes that oscillate amongst and travel through brain tissues. But the mystery of how percepts arise from chemical concentrations and electrical impulses remains. Why does consciousness look and feel like perception rather than simply being circuitry? What is this additional substance that traditional anatomy does not model?

Electric currents accelerate in many locations within a neuron, near the nodes of Ranvier, along the length of dendrites, due to the juncture of soma and axon hillock, and around the synaptic cleft as a product of steady gradient between Na+, K+ and the synapse’s Ca2+. Accelerating coherence currents of electron energy emit electromagnetic radiation that as a general rule is lower in frequency the larger the current, so radio waves range anywhere from 1mm to 100 km in wavelength, while orbitals of an atom’s valence shell emit visible light, from 400-700 nm. Microscopic electric currents in the brain emit higher frequency radiation than for instance a transmission line, but this radiation is nonetheless low enough in frequency to travel through both liquids and solids, like radio waves and more unlike visible light. If much of this EM radiation superpositions into the electron orbitals of atoms as it transits through them with a speed that is effectively instantaneous in the brain, spreading at a distance of many micrometers until its intensity diminishes to negligibility, this is almost certainly sufficient to bind hundreds if not thousands of molecular structures as individual units of extremely hybrid wavelength. In combination with entanglement effects that cause these photonic fields and atomic nodes to tightly cohere, this could produce wavelength complexes intricate enough to be what we experience as a subjective image. If the hypothesis is accurate, these entangled superposition arrays or “coherence fields” do not merely correlate with image perception but actually are the image itself.

At this stage, we do not have much direct evidence. Research into the mechanisms of
consciousness has thus far focused on microtubules. These cytoskeletal structures have a tightly
knit arrangement of molecules hypothesized as amenable to superposition. Experiments
show that the tryptophan molecules of microtubules form a complex that enters a coherent state of
energy distribution spanning micrometers in the presence of UV light. Anesthetic seems to inhibit
the process, hinting at a connection with consciousness. This mechanism is similar to that found in
photosynthetic reaction centers and may be quite common in nature. Initial data indicates that
longer wavelengths exact these effects at greater distance scales, so interaction between relatively
large molecular arrays in the brain and low frequency EM radiation as emitted by electric currents
seems within the realm of possibility. We have much more data for the influence of EM fields,
which in addition to phase-locking and numerous further functions mediate energy transduction in
transmission channels of the cytoskeleton, processes governing the entire structure of a cell along
with the movement of components such as mitochondria, vesicles, etc.

Plenty of circumstantial evidence points to light’s role in coherence fields. Within a neuron,
electric current accelerates fastest over the largest amount of space while transiting the soma, and a relatively steady electrical gradient ranging from Na+ and K+ to Ca2+ is present around the synapse. This also happens to be where complex molecular arrays that superposition with EM radiation would likely be located. The superposition of low frequency EM radiation with molecular structure is probably not obstructed by factors of heat and moisture that have seemed prohibitive to widespread coherence among molecules alone. Within a plenitude of environments, photon entanglement is especially robust while operative at large spatial ranges, which supplies a viable binding mechanism for percept units constructed of molecular parts that are distributed somewhat widely in cellular solution. And coherence fields of this kind explain why the brain is composed of grey and white matter. Grey matter of dendrites, soma and the axon’s interior is darkly shaded as it absorptively superpositions with large amounts of radiation at a range of frequencies to form percepts, while the myelin of axons is white to reflect radiation that is not absorbed so intensity minimally attenuates with distance. From the outside brain matter is greyish, but from the inside much of its atomic structure may bind with waves of EM radiation to form the substance of percepts. This can possibly make sense of mental images and hallucinatory artifacts of brain processes, perceptual phenomena which are not necessarily stimulated by environments outside the body.

If the substance of image percepts is so strongly tied to dynamics of electromagnetic matter
within the brain, why does the perceptual field appear so convincingly to be in the environment?
For instance, if visual percepts reside amongst biochemistry of the occipital lobe or elsewhere in the
brain, how is this not introspected as such? We must remember that the sharply focused optical
field is only the size of your thumb held at arm’s length in front of the face, with the majority of vision
pieced together from eye saccading and involuntary memory. The brain has adapted a distribution
of tissues and functions to discern the unity of nature effortlessly in many cases, but to a profound
degree this is indirect representation rather than direct correspondence. The issue of how percepts
can arise from a brain’s coherence fields is in essence the same as how electrical signals organize
neural networks within which these percepts are located. Just as neural units correspond to a
plethora of functions, coherence field units probably map onto brain structure as a material
equivalent of subjective imagery. Specially adapted phase-locking of neurons with EM fields could
synchronize percepts within relatively large regions of the brain.

Then why does subjective experience include somewhat nondimensional qualities of subjective feel as well? The following of course needs to be conclusively proven, but feel percepts most likely emerge from the way coherence fields as arrays of entangled superposition resonate, vibrate. This would mean that the building blocks of sensation, emotion, etc. are intrinsic to matter, as are those of image formation. In the natural environment, vibrating wavelengths do not feel or appear with much resolution, but emergent structure enhances the body’s ability to translate these building blocks into functional experience.

At first glance it seems that neural network synchronicity as mediated by feedback loops and
phase-locking is active, while the perceptual facets of coherence field modulation in the brain such as
images and feelings would be passive, so why did percepts develop what seem to be such
overabundant rather than parsimonious forms? If coherence field theory is accurate, filling this gap
in our knowledge of the physical world almost with the weight of necessity, basic fragments of feeling
and appearance are present at quantum scales. Matter would mutate as a coherence field at nearly
fundamental levels, so more complex structures of experiencing will ineluctably result in more
complex perceptual forms such as imagination, thought and emotion, though emergence can
adopt almost inexhaustible variety. This is not the entire story, for nonlocal entanglement at great
distances seems to require physical forces which include some nonelectromagnetic component, but
to the extent that these more exotic phenomena interact with brain tissue, the coherence field
concept and a quantum neuroscience seem promising as the framework upon which to construct
working models of so-called subjectivity’s substance.

Anosognosia, Mental Health and the Culture of Consciousness

It is estimated that 57-98% of those diagnosed with schizophrenia have cooccurring anosognosia, which is the name given to a patient’s absence of insight that he or she has a health condition. Inability of patients to acknowledge that lack of treatment brings on symptoms of schizophrenia leads to much noncompliance with doctors, relapses accompanied by degeneration of brain tissue, repeated hospitalizations, and a stigma that grows as available medical measures commonly remain less effective than they could be due partly to a patient’s decision-making.

Analysis of those diagnosed with schizophrenia has identified differences in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The dorsolateral region was reduced in size, important for self-monitoring and organization. This may be responsible for inaccurate assessment of causality when the patient regards his or her symptoms. The orbitofrontal region was conversely enlarged. This portion of the brain is critical for attributing significance to events, so may cause excessive salience of perceptual symptoms, a hallmark of schizophrenia whether or not anosognosia occurs. Studying the performance of those with schizophrenia on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) revealed a seeming correlation between insight impairment and inflexibility of abstract thinking, functions linked to the PFC. Lower grey matter volume was observed in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region which participates in working memory and decision-making, potentially reducing the capacity to entertain alternative interpretations about one’s misperceptions.

The anterior insula, involved with emotional processing, and the posterior insula with its role in processing somatosensory (bodily sensation), auditory and visceral modalities has been pinpointed as abnormal. The insula makes complex connections to additional areas implicated in schizophrenia, such as the PFC, limbic system, thalamus and sensory cortices. Post-mortem examinations have revealed especially prominent size reduction in grey matter of the insula, and measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using positron emission tomography (PET) showed atypical activation during a task challenging the ability of subjects to attribute agency to their perceived actions. MRI has identified lower volume of both grey and white matter in the insulas of relatively stable schizophrenia patients. The prevailing model postulates the anterior insula as involved in conscious error detection, while the posterior insula integrates somatosensory input and structures concomitant with further modalities. The former might be tied to ideas of reference, and the latter hallucinatory delusions.

In 2001, studies began to single out a default mode network (DMN) active while subjects are at wakeful rest and deactivated during focused behavior, including structures such as the medial prefrontal cortex, lateral parietal cortex, anterior singulate cortex, posterior singulate cortex, and precuneus. This distribution of brain regions is deeply involved in self-reflection, social cognition and mind-wandering. Hyperconnectivity tends to be present in those at high risk for developing schizophrenia, and the DMN deactivates less in these individuals during focused tasks. In relatives without a schizophrenia diagnosis who manifest this trait, stronger connectivity was found in the DMN, hinting at a possible link between poor insight and deterioration in a specific phenotype of self-related processing.

So irrespective of how these differences develop, we can claim as a general rule that many patients with schizophrenia are more concrete thinkers, have greater difficulty in accurate attribution of causality to various perceptions such as somatosensory feelings, sounds and interoceptions on both a conceptual and aesthetic level, as well as being prone to extraordinarily spontaneous trains of thought, perhaps describable as a type of focused awareness more fused with the unconscious. When executive controls of cognition break down from gene expression and/or stressors, concepts can become palpable as perceptions, perceptions palpable as sensory input, and stream of consciousness hard-pressed to decisively and analytically integrate experiences as information. The afflicted’s capacity to cope with stimuli and navigate through illusion to reality in the motives or meanings of one’s milieu is strained. Perception of what is going on along with apprehension of the reasons why things happen grows uncertain, confused or delusional, and the psyche is susceptible to caving in under the pressure, losing touch with the world to such a degree that one cannot articulate nor in many cases even recognize the problem.

The emblematic form of schizophrenia consists in a cognitive profile that is at risk for detachment from the causal implications, abstractions and normal stimulations of sociocultural reality. But individuals who do not have schizophrenia usually go through comparable sorts of struggles at some point during their lives, with a similar taxing of the same brain regions under difficult social circumstances. Challenges to a human being’s psychical complex of executive control, affect and perception are common, so the majority of the population would report the same range of symptoms upon initial contact with a doctor or therapist. Diagnostic criteria associated with schizophrenia have thus expanded to become the equivalent of flulike symptoms in mental health, a broad category encompassing those with the standard instantiation and many that have the same social issues arising from alternate cognitive/behavioral causes and backgrounds.

Looking at schizophrenia from the most general perspective possible, our decades of experience in treating this disorder indicate that its symptoms, from full-blown psychotic breaks to chronic difficulty in ordinary situations, arise from an incapacity of the mind to deal with perceptual or affective stimulation via executive control. Though further research is needed to detail common, rare, old and new categories of schizophrenia diagnosis, it seems apparent based on initial analysis that the disorder results from excesses in psychical mechanisms of stimulation, deficiencies in psychical mechanisms of stimulation or executive control, and environmental triggers. Extreme executive control in the presence of normal perception, affect and environment does not usually appear unhealthy nor result in behavioral troubles, and this disposition is much less likely to fall under the purview of long-term counseling or medication management.

Overstimulated perception is the source of traditional schizophrenia. This is the easiest form to diagnose because it inclines to produce more obvious behaviors such as reacting to things that are not there, confused or delusional thinking, becoming agitated or catatonic for reasons which are not always clear to the general public, and of course anosognosia. Medications designed for schizophrenia were first tailored to this type of condition, and the need for treatment is not difficult to ascertain. When accompanied by severe emotional outbursts, a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder is usually the outcome and a somewhat different regimen of medications seems appropriate.

While schizophrenia as a diagnostic category evolved, it also began to encompass conditions of understimulation. These cases can evince symptoms such as flat affect, difficulty in figuring out the motives of those one interacts with due to incomparable perceptions, and relationship struggles. This is essentially the opposite of hallucinating, an anosognosia characterized by lack of intuition into the minds of typical human beings. Talk therapy and social supports are in principle capable of improving insight for these patients, but medicine has not attained the efficacy to modify this cognitive profile into more ordinary forms, which might be possible by manipulating or supplementing biochemistry in the brain and body once relevant mechanisms have been discovered.

Inability to perceive stimulations that influence one’s own behavior or one’s stimulating effects on those in his or her vicinity are also commonly diagnosed as schizophrenia. This is a kind of blindness to the impact of one’s perceptions and cognitions. The condition includes consistently encountering behavior that seems apathetic, hostile or irrational, incomprehensibility in the causation of one’s experiences, and difficulty in connecting with or expressing the motives of typical individuals. When no emotional state or approach proves workable in controlling negative feedback from the social environment, these patients are pushed to the breaking point and affective symptoms are the outcome. Severe anosognosia is a common consequence despite talk therapy, with the patient’s social support system liable to disintegration. More recent medications have started to find ways of grappling with this disorder, and improved comprehension of the underlying biochemistry and physiology should help immensely.

The similar problems that everyone has during stressful periods of life due to social environment
are not called schizophrenia, but as can be seen from this description of less well-understood forms of
the condition that are quickly becoming diagnostic conventions, a strong aspect of social triggering is
typically present. The less scientifically and medically theorized a form of schizophrenia is, the more
acute are these social triggers along with companion anosognosia, and the worse the prognosis for
even patients who can still think in relatively coherent ways. This innocent word “anosognosia” is
the tip of the iceberg for a suite of symptoms that put patients and doctors on the front lines insofar
as properties of mind prompt lack of understanding or empathy, stigma, and conflict perpetuated by
all affiliated parties.

It is obviously preferable to model the physical causes of mental health symptoms rather than
force citizens to wage a battle for the purpose of keeping relatives, friends and the public stable, safe
and informed, but neuroscience has not had much prospect of explaining in a mechanistic way how
the vast variety in percepts themselves, as opposed to the regulation of neural networks, emerges
from matter to generate the substance of consciousness. This makes culture vulnerable to a regress
towards stereotyping, alienation and strife between demographics, as those in and around mental
health treatment know quite well.

If a framework like coherence field theory can clarify the way percepts arise in conjunction with
brain, body and environment, this may manage to refine diagnostic classifications so that comprehension of consciousness becomes dramatically more explicit and less rampant with disinformation, in a way analogous to the impact had by our technical models of neurons, neurotransmitters and brain regions. This would probably be complemented by new classes of medication that modify perception while better circumventing sedative, stimulant and systemic side effects. Perhaps the fidelity of a neuroscience that utilizes quantum physics might finally bridge the gap between science and psyche which philosophers have termed the hard problem of consciousness, uniting matter with mind to rework popular ideas regarding cognition in the next phase of our centuries-long movement towards theoretical/cultural synthesis, boosting domestic accord and actualizing lives.

What formal qualifications do you have in this area?

Overstimulated perception is the source of traditional schizophrenia. This is the easiest form to diagnose because it inclines to produce more obvious behaviors such as reacting to things that are not there, confused or delusional thinking, becoming agitated or catatonic for reasons which are not alw — Enrique

I dont know how this impacts on the main aim of your paper, but whether schizophrenia( and there are probably many kinds of schizophrenia of different etiologies) involves over or under-stimulation of groups of neurons, I have found a useful way of understanding behaviors typically associated with schizophrenia as being the result of fragmentation in processing concentrated in language-related areas. Unlike something like LSD, schizophrenia does not produce a direct alteration in simple perception, at least not apart from meaning-connected expereince. The language centers of brian are designed to take lower level perceptual information form the various sense modalities and synthesize unified concepts from these inputs. It also filters these concepts relative to appropriate context. When these synthesizing functions are disrupted, one’s language comes disassociated from context, and such things as word salad result. The first associations to a word that we hear or think don’t lead, as they do in ‘normals’, to further associations that belong to a focused and unified context of current goal-directed behavior but produce a string of simple associations based on sound or rhyme or visual quality that lead to endless dead ends. This fragmenting of the unity of goal-directed meaning is also exemplified in hearing voices. These are not simple auditory hallucinations, as is the case with lsd. One’s own flow of meaningful thought becomes split from itself such that one experiences it as if it were coming from another person, but heard inside one’s own head alongside one’s own thoughts. The disease fragments language and it also fragments the sense of self. Even the boundaries of one’s body in relation to the world become blurred or absent.

As you mentioned , emotional stress can trigger episodes, just as stress can impair the unity of thought in non-schizophrenics. Medications sedate the thinking process in a non-targeted way, which may help by making it harder for the mind to take concpet-formation down blind random tangents. Given the multitude of cause of the disease ( it is actually many loosely related diseases) , I wonder how an analysis at the molecular , much less quantum, level could impact what is essentially a behaviorally-defined syndrome.

there are even now associations of self-proclaimed ‘voice hearers’ who argue that they should not be pathologized but instead respected as merely non-typical.


I suspect that trying to find a single cause or mechanism of schizophrenia is like trying to find a cause of psychological gender.

↪Enrique What formal qualifications do you have in this area? — Tom Storm

Not doubt a PhD from 'Deepak Chopra University'. :sparkle:

The reasons for noncompliance with treatment through medication amongst schizophrenics are not just about not recognising that one is unwell but often due to the negative side-effects of some medications, including movement disorders and weight gain.

In terms of getting people to be aware of having schizophrenia it may be that the essential aspect is the person getting to the realisation of the comparison between being well and unwell. In working with the issue, it is important for the health professional to listen and work with the individual's experience rather than simply giving a diagnosis. This is because, ultimately, it is not simply about getting a person to 'comply' with treatment plans but getting the person to a greater state of wellbeing and, being able to plan goals to enable recovery and identify sources which may contribute to becoming unwell in the future.

:up:

What formal qualifications do you have in this area? — Tom Storm

I have a degree in philosophy, some math with lots of chemistry, biology and neuroscience courses also. Quantum physics is more of a hobby so as you can tell my comprehension is not highly quantitative, but I've given the foundational concepts of quantum mechanics a LOT of thought for a few years and the applications for neuroscience have become very apparent to me. The field of consciousness study and its techniques are not as developed as many scientific disciplines, so you don't have to be a world-renowned superstar to help out.

Given the multitude of cause of the disease ( it is actually many loosely related diseases) , I wonder how an analysis at the molecular , much less quantum, level could impact what is essentially a behaviorally-defined syndrome.

there are even now associations of self-proclaimed ‘voice hearers’ who argue that they should not be pathologized but instead respected as merely non-typical.

I suspect that trying to find a single cause or mechanism of schizophrenia is like trying to find a cause of psychological gender. — Joshs

The reasons for noncompliance with treatment through medication amongst schizophrenics are not just about not recognising that one is unwell but often due to the negative side-effects of some medications, including movement disorders and weight gain. — Jack Cummins

I think the language-related symptoms Joshs speaks of are a matter of thought-organization and roughly belong in the category of problems with executive control, so perhaps in many cases it's not really overstimulation per se but inability to corral stimulations via reasoning. As you explained, schizophrenia has many forms and is difficult to generalize. I think traditional medications address the thought-organization symptoms fairly well, basically by modifying the way brain regions communicate. Unfortunately they can have systemic side-effects and work marginally for some patients. If my quantum hypotheses are proven accurate, the next generation of medications will modify percepts themselves, as radiative/molecular structures, which could provide noticeably better balance for many patients. I know that kind of medication would probably work well for me. It may even be possible to enhance percepts a la spice in Dune, that would be cool!

I agree many voice hearers should probably be respected as individuals who simply cannot function without support groups that let them self-identify as such. I'm very close to being in that category. My auditory stuff can be unresponsive to medication and I've tried a lot of prescriptions. I've been working with doctors to get this under control for years and if I ever find a community group that truly supports those in my position that would be amazing. A lot of patients try to avoid all the side-effect issues by minimizing dosages, but that never worked for me.

In my humble opinion, the key is to make sure you have adequate doctor's supervision as you make medication changes. I discontinued a medication once without a doctor's involvement and though I had a lot more cognitive clarity afterwards my life has never recovered. The same medication was temporarily discontinued a couple years ago due to a mixup at the pharmacy and I've been living in Mordor ever since. I doubt my experience is the norm though.

Thanks Enrique - so you come to this issue via lived experience? That can be a valuable lens.

Not doubt a PhD from 'Deepak Chopra University'. :sparkle:
9h — 180 Proof

:rofl:

Deepak Chopra is, charitably speaking, onto something!