Quantum Mechanics, Complexity, and Consciousness: Toward a Science of Conscious Systems
        by Larry Goldberg

ABSTRACT

Could a science of conscious systems, one that integrates the contributions of quantum mechanics, systems theory, the cognitive sciences, and energy medicine, make methodological sense? Individually, these potential contributing disciplines have all had their own methodological challenges. Quantum mechanics has achieved remarkable precision and predictive value, but has generated a variety of alternative interpretations of “quantum reality.” Systems science has helped us to temporarily divide our study of the world into “levels,” but in analyzing systems with strong interlevel interactions, it has left us with the challenge of finding a basis for explanation beyond the laws or theories defined at levels of organization and a basis for collaboration beyond the methodologies of the disciplines that study those levels. Cognitive neuroscience has identified brain correlates of different kinds of consciousness, such as the 35-75 Hz brainwaves associated with working memory in visual perception. The new field of energy medicine has also made a contribution to the study of consciousness by extending the focus on brain process to include the entire “living matrix” of the many forms of information and energy transfer in the body. Yet neither the cognitive sciences nor the study of “subtle energies” have been able to guide us in distinguishing between conscious phenomena caused by “the body” and bodily phenomena caused by consciousness; or in explaining the basis for the relationship between (or integration of) consciousness and the body. Remarkably, however, the collaboration of all these disciplines in an interdisciplinary science of conscious systems promises to enable their synergistic progress in the resolution of their respective problems in the context of their cooperative development of testable “interlevel” models of possible quantum gateways between consciousness and electromagnetic phenomena. If this program is successful, its integrated interpretations of quantum reality, complexity, and consciousness will have tremendous implications for our worldview.