Quantum entanglement may explain the phenomenon of consciousness

Modern science is persistently searching for an answer to the mystery of consciousness, suggesting that it is hidden somewhere in the electromagnetic interactions of the brain. But exactly how this happens remains a mystery.

A group of scientists from China suggested that there was quantum entanglement involved. In their paper, they explain how entangled photons in nerve cells are able to synchronize brain activity.

The paper, authored by physicists Zefei Liu and Yong-Cong Chen and bioengineer Ping Ao from Shanghai University, comes a few months after an international team of scientists identified another quantum phenomenon in biological organisms: superradiance.

The discovery has brought new attention to the controversial Penrose-Hameroff Orch-OR (Orchestrated Objective Reduction) theory of consciousness, which posits that networks of protein microtubules act as a kind of quantum computer for consciousness.

The work of Chinese scientists talks about myelin, a sheath of glial cells that covers the processes of neurons. The cylindrical myelin cavities are suitable for amplifying the infrared photons that neurons generate.

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As a result, pairs of entangled photons are periodically produced from carbon-hydrogen bonds. Their movement through ionic waves of brain biochemistry can cause correlations between processes that play a central role in the brain’s ability to synchronize activity.

However, this is just a hypothesis, which so far has little confirmation. Evidence for the influence of entangled photons on large-scale biological processes is limited to photosynthesis.

Today, official science is very far from providing evidence of any other processes in the brain outside of classical chemistry. And we are even further away from recognizing the brain as a quantum computer.

But perhaps, it’s time to tone down skepticism and at least consider the possibility of quantum phenomena in some basic brain functions.