Abstract
Theoretical explication of a growing body of empirical data on consciousness-related anomalous phenomena is unlikely to be achieved in terms of known physical processes. Rather, it will first be necessary to formulate the basic role of consciousness in the definition of reality before such anomalous experience can adequately be represented. This paper takes the position that reality is constituted only in the interaction of consciousness with its environment, and therefore that any scheme of conceptual organization developed to represent that reality must reflect the processes of consciousness as well as those of its environment. In this spirit, the concepts and formalisms of elementary quantum mechanics, as originally proposed to explain anomalous atomic-scale physical phenomena, are appropriated via metaphor to represent the general characteristics of consciousness interacting with any environment. More specifically, if consciousness is represented by a quantum mechanical wave function, and its environment by an appropriate potential profile, Schrödinger wave mechanics defines eigenfunctions and eigenvalues that can be associated with the cognitive and emotional experiences of that consciousness in that environment. To articulate this metaphor it is necessary to associate certain aspects of the formalism, such as the coordinate system, the quantum numbers, and even the metric itself, with various impressionistic descriptors of consciousness, such as its intensity, perspective, approach/avoidance attitude, balance between cognitive and emotional activity, and receptive/assertive disposition. With these established, a number of the generic features of quantum mechanics, such as the wave/particle duality, and the uncertainty, indistinguishability, and exclusion principles, display metaphoric relevance to familiar individual and collective experiences. Similarly, such traditional quantum theoretic exercises as the central force field and atomic structure, covalent molecular bonds, barrier penetration, and quantum statistical collective behavior become useful analogies for representation of a variety of consciousness experiences, both normal and anomalous, and for the design of experiments to study these systematically.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
R. G. Jahn, “The persistent paradox of psychic phenomena: An engineering perspective,”Proc. IEEE 70, 136–170 (1982), and references therein.
R. G. Jahn and B. J. Dunne, “On the Quantum Mechanics of Consciousness, With Application to Anomalous Phenomena,” Technical Note PEAR 83005.1, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1984;
R. G. Jahn and B. J. Dunne, “Appendix B; Collected Thoughts on the Role of Consciousness in the Physical Representation of Reality,” Technical Note PEAR 83005.1B, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1984.
R. D. Nelson, B. J. Dunne, and R. G. Jahn, “An REG Experiment with Large Data-Base Capability, III: Operator-Related Anomalies,” Technical Note PEAR 84003, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1984.
B. J. Dunne, R. D. Nelson, and R. G. Jahn, “A Psychokinesis Experiment with a Random Mechanical Cascade, II,” Technical Note PEAR 85005, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1985.
B. J. Dunne, R. G. Jahn, and R. D. Nelson, “Precognitive Remote Perception,” Technical Note PEAR 83003, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1983.
R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, and R. D. Nelson, “Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research,” Technical Note PEAR 85003, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1985;
R. D. Nelson, R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, “Operator-related anomalies in physical systems and information processes,”J. Soc. Psychical Res. 53, 261–285 (1986).
R. G. Jahn, R. D. Nelson, and B. J. Dunne, “Variance Effects in REG Series Score Distributions.” Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association 28th Annual Convention, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, August 1985.
D. J. Radin, E. C. May, and M. J. Thomson, “Psi Experiments with Random Number Generators: Meta-Analysis Part 1.” Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association 28th Annual Convention, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, August 1985, and references therein.
H. E. Puthoff and R. Targ, “A perceptual channel for information transfer over kilometer distances: Historical perspective and recent research,”Proc. IEEE 64, 329–354 (1976).
C. T. Tart, H. E. Puthoff, and R. Targ, eds.,Mind at Large: IEEE Symposia on the Nature of Extrasensory Perception, (Praeger Publishers, Praeger Special Studies, New York, 1979).
B. J. Dunne and J. P. Bisaha, “Precognitive remote viewing in the Chicago area,”J. Parapsychol. 43, 17–30 (1979).
G. P. Hansen, M. J. Schlitz, and C. T. Tart, “Summary of Remote Viewing Experiments,” 1983, unpublished manuscript, and references therein.
R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, and E. G. Jahn, “Analytical judging procedure for remote perception experiments,”J. Parapsychol. 44, 207–231 (1980).
R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, R. D. Nelson, E. G. Jahn, T. A. Curtis, I. A. Cook, “Analytical Judging Procedure for Remote Perception Experiments. II: Ternary Coding and Generalized Descriptors,” Technical Note PEAR 82002, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, School of Engineering/Applied Science, 1982.
C. T. K. Chari, “Some generalized theories and models of psi: A critical evaluation,” inHandbook of Parapsychology, B. B. Wolman, ed. (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977), pp. 803–822.
I. M. Kogan, “Information theory analysis of telepathic communication experiments,”Radio Eng. 23, 122 (1968).
M. A. Persinger, “ELF field mediation in spontaneous psi events: Direct information transfer or conditional elicitation?,” inMind at Large, C. T. Tart, H. E. Puthoff, and R. Targ, eds. (Praeger Publishers, Praeger Special Studies, New York, 1979), pp. 189–204.
W. von Lucadou and K. Kornwachs, “Development of the system-theoretic approach to psychokinesis,” paper presented at the Parascience Conference, London, 1979.
G. Feinberg, “Precognition—a memory of things future,” inQuantum Physics and Parapsychology, L. Oteri, ed. (Parapsychology Foundation, New York, 1975), pp. 54–64.
E. A. Rauscher, “Some physical models potentially applicable to remote perception,” inThe Iceland Papers, A. Puharich, ed. (Essentia Research Associates, Amherst, Wisconsin, 1979), pp. 49–83.
D. Bohm, “Quantum theory as an indication of a new order in physics. Part B. Implicate and explicate order in physical law,”Found. Phys. 1, 139–168 (1971).
O. Costa de Beauregard, “The expanding paradigm of the Einstein paradox,” inThe Iceland Papers, A. Puharich, ed. (Essentia Associates, Amherst, Wisconsin, 1979), pp. 162–191.
E. H. Walker, “Foundations of paraphysical and parapsychological phenomena,” inQuantum Physics and Parapsychology, L. Oteri, ed. (Parapsychology Foundation, New York, 1975), pp. 1–44.
F. Bacon,Novum Organum, “Idols of perception,” Quoted in G. B. Levitas, ed.,The World of Psychology, Vol. I (George Braziller, New York, 1963), pp. 161–168.
J. Jeans,The Mysterious Universe. (Macmillan, New York, 1948), pp. 166, 186.
S. Freud,The Future of an Illusion (London, 1943), p. 97, Quoted in Editor's Introduction,General Psychological Theory (Collier Books, New York, 1963), p. 9.
A. Schopenhauer,The World as Will and Representation, Volume II (Translated by E. F. J. Payne.) (Dover, New York, 1966), pp. 15–16.
M. Planck,A Survey of Physical Theory (Translated by R. Jones and D. H. Williams) (Dover, New York, 1960), p.53.
P. A. Schilpp, ed.,Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois; George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, Wisconsin, 1949), pp. 175–176, 11–13.
N. Bohr,Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1961), p. 15.
E. Schrödinger,My View of the World (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1964), pp. 35–36, 37.
S. Freud,New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Norton, New York, 1933).
C. G. Jung,Psychological Types (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1923).
A. H. Maslow,Motivation and Personality (Harper and Row, New York, 1954).
E. H. Erikson,Childhood and Society (Norton, New York, 1963).
J. Piaget,The Origins of Intelligence in Children (International Universities Press, New York, 1952).
L. Kohlberg, “Development of moral character and moral ideology,” inReview of Child Development Research, Vol. I, M. L. Hoffman and L. W. Hoffman, eds. (Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1964).
J. H. Woods, translator,The Yoga System of Pantanjali (Harvard Oriental Series XVII, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1924).
W. Heitler,Elementary Wave Mechanics (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1948).
R. A. White, “The influence of the experimenter motivation, attitudes and methods of handling subjects in psi test results,” inHandbook of Parapsychology, B. B. Wolman, ed. (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977), pp. 273–301.
P. A. Schilpp, ed.,Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. (The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston Ill.; George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, Wisconsin, 1949), pp. 681–682.
B.-A. Scharfstein,Mystical Experience (Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1974).
B. B. Wolman, ed.,Handbook of Parapsychology (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977), and references therein.
J. Ehrenwald, “Psi phenomena and brain research,” inHandbook of Parapsychology, B. B. Wolman, ed. (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977), pp. 716–729.
W. Heisenberg,Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (a Harper Torchbook, Harper and Row, New York, 1962), p. 179.
N. Bohr,Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1961), pp. 23–24.
F. Capra,The Tao of Physics (Shambala, Boulder, Colorado, 1975).
G. Zukav,The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (William Morrow, New York, 1979).
R. Jones,Physics as Metaphor (New American Library, New York and Scarborough, Ontario, 1983).
A. de Riencourt,The Eye of Shiva: Eastern Mysticism and Science (Morrow Quill Paperbacks, New York, 1980).
R. C. Tolman,The Principles of Statistical Mechanics (Oxford University Press, New York, 1938).
W. James,Some Problems in Philosophy (Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1911), p. 185.
C. E. Shannon and W. Weaver,The Mathematical Theory of Communication (University of Illinois Press, 1949).
B. F. Skinner,Contingencies of Reinforcement (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1969).
P. Edwards, ed., “Time” and “Time, Consciousness of” inThe Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan Co. and the Free Press, New York, 1967), Vol. 8., pp. 126–134, 134–139.
H. L. Bergson,Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (G. Allen and Unwin, London, 1921).
E. Husserl,The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness (Indiana University Press, Bloomington and London, 1964).
G. J. Whitrow,The Natural Philosophy of Time (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980).
P. C. W. Davies,The Physics of Time Asymmetry (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977).
E. Pöppel, “Oscillations as possible basis for time perception,” inThe Study of Time, J. T. Fraser, F. C. Haber, and G. H. Müller, eds. (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1972), pp. 219–241.
N. Cousins,Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration (Norton, New York, 1979).
S. Freud,The Neuro-Psychoses of Defense, Collected Papers, Vol. 1, 1894, quoted in Editor's Introduction,The Interpretation of Dreams (Avon Books, New York, 1965), p. xvi.
A. Eddington,Space, Time and Gravitation (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978), p. 150.
H. E. Puthoff and E. C. May, “Update on remote viewing research at SRI,”The Explorer (Newsletter of the Society for Scientific Exploration)1, No. 2, November 1983.
C. Honorton, “Psi and internal attention states,” inHandbook of Parapsychology, B. B. Wolman, ed. (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1977), pp. 435–472, and references therein.
R. A. Monroe,Journeys Out of the Body (Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1971).
R. A. Moody,Life after Life (Bantam Books, New York, 1976).
N. Bohr,Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1961), pp. 20–21.
W. Pauli, “The influence of archetypal ideas on the scientific theories of Kepler,” inInterpretation of Nature and the Psyche, C. G. Jung and W. Pauli, eds. (translated by P. Silz) (Pantheon Books, Bollingen Series LI, 1955), pp. 207–210. (Copyright Princeton University Press.)
C. G. Jung,The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Translated by R. F. C. Hull.) (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1969).
W. Heisenberg,Physics and Beyond (Harper and Row, New York, 1971), p. 78.
E. Schrödinger,What is Life? (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1945), pp. 87–88.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jahn, R.G., Dunne, B.J. On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with application to anomalous phenomena. Found Phys 16, 721–772 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00735378
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00735378