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Home > Resources > Consciousness Studies

This conference convened August 9-15, 1999 in Liege, Belgium. One hundred sixty-five papers were presented by approximately one hundred fifty participants from thirty different countries. Under the rubric of Computing Anticipatory Systems, subject matter included systems as diverse as neurons, neural nets, Turing machines, quantum computers, MRI machines, space systems and biological systems. Most papers were highly mathematical and technical, encompassing both theoretical and experimental studies. The quality of the papers was exceptionally high. A thread running through the entire conference was the challenge to commonly accepted interpretations of relativity, quantum mechanics, neurophysiology and classical computing systems.

I was invited to present two papers in two different sessions of the conference: one in the initial plenary session on the future requirements of space flight, and one in a symposium on "Quantum Neural Information Processing, New Technology, New Biology?" Both papers are appended to this report. The latter paper I considered a high-risk paper in that it proposed non-locality as the basis of perception, which is the evolutionary basis of consciousness; and it proposed the non-local quantum hologram as the solution to a century of unexplained psychic data. I am both humbled and gratified that both papers were enthusiastically received by attendees. In this regard the conference was more a spectacular success than I had any reason to believe it would be. The conferees were largely frontier thinkers rather than more mainstream academics which likely accounts for the enthusiasm.

A high point for me at the conference was the attendance of Dr. Karl Pribram at both my sessions and his piercing but complementary comments on the papers. He has agreed to join with us on future studies, conferences and discussions concerning holography of the brain, the quantum hologram and the relationship to perception. For those unfamiliar with Pribram's work, he proposed almost 30 years ago that the brain appears to operate much like a hologram. A number of tentative observations that I made during preparation for this conference seemed to be solidified by lengthy dialogue with the participants:

1. The European academics (at least those attending this conference) are far more engaged in breakthrough efforts on the frontiers of science than academics in the U.S. Our research people seem far more concerned to remain within known science, getting research grants that further technological development and economic agendas than addressing the really tough scientific questions facing us. All discussions at this conference were exhilarating and challenging in this regard.

2. These men (there were no women presenters) are already convinced that general relativity and quantum mechanics, as taught for most of this century, require significant revision if we are to explain the cosmology of the universe with us in it and consciousness, including "paranormal" and mystical experience. A large majority are already pushing the frontier in this regard and are comfortable with the work done through Noetics for almost 30 years. The "nay sayers" that we have routinely experienced in U.S. institutions were hardly visible in this group. That does not mean, however, that there was a lack of constructive criticism.

3. The quantum hologram that Peter Marcer, Walter Schempp, George Farre (Georgetown University) and I have been working on for four years and which was the subject of a number of papers among us, is seen as a major breakthrough, not only in consciousness studies but also in a large number of areas were classical science has produced explanations and even technologies, but which now appear to be only gross approximations to the underlying processes. For example: it is now clear that quantum and electromagnetic phenomena underlay all processes of the body that medical science and biology currently attempts to describe with chemical theory only. And, it was the consensus at this meeting that "subtle energies" which have a large following in this country will eventually be seen as interactions between the electromagnetic and quantum levels with the underlying zero point field. There does not seem to be a requirement to find undiscovered energies in order to explain living systems as we observe and experience them; known energies (quantum and electromagnetic) seem to be sufficient.

4. The work that Hal Puthoff, Bernard Haisch and Alfonso Rueda have been doing with electrodynamics of the zero point field concerning inertia, mass and gravitation fit right into the concepts discussed at the conference concerning relativity and quantum mechanics. They are also vital to understanding "nonlocality" which is emerging as the "hot topic" necessary to explain consciousness effects, and likely gravitation as well. Twenty-five years ago in private discussions between myself and Brendan O'Regan we speculated that consciousness and gravitation were likely curiously related. I express this in the sense that gravitation holds the universe together and consciousness organizes it. The common factor seems to be that both are related to non-locality, or at the very least, propagation through space at velocities far exceeding the speed of light — a concept that until now has been forbidden because it violated special relativity. But that barrier is now being seen as a likely flawed interpretation of nature. (See added note following on this subject.)

5. The consensus among the smaller group that I was working with: Pribram, Marcer, Schempp, Farre, Daniel Dubois (organizer of the conference), was that the proposed follow-on session in the U.S. that I have proposed for this fall or early next year (likely the latter) should be focused on bringing to our group, which is now familiar and excited about this approach, U.S. academics and researchers who can appreciate the breakthrough character of the work and help further its development. In this regard I hope to rely strongly on Marilyn Schlitz and the resources of the research department at IONS to help in the organization of this effort.

As an exciting follow on to the conference, but clearly within the spirit of advancement of the frontiers of science; upon return from Europe I was given a copy (by Joe Firmage) of the very recent book (1998) by Halton Arp "Seeing Red" which is about cosmology and red shift analysis. Arp, along with Fred Hoyle (and a few others) have resisted the big bang theory, but this is the very first in depth analysis by a brilliant astronomer and astrophysicist which presents the complete picture supporting a steady state universe. It is powerful, exciting, thorough and very, very convincing. But, most importantly for our purposes, it seems to fit much better with the zero point field concepts of Puthoff, Haisch, Rueda (#4 above) and with our consciousness concepts than does a big bang cosmology. If confirmed, a number of enigmas might be resolved. According to Arp (and Hoyle) red shift is produced by young galaxies with newly created matter, as well as by the well-known velocity effect. If this is truly the case, then it has been a colossal error to treat all red shifted objects in the heavens as at great distance and receding ever faster with distance. This hypothesis can be checked relatively easily by modern spectrographic work, (and to a limited extend has been) but according to Arp the evidence has been rejected out of hand by mainstream big bang dogmatists who control the observing times on major telescopes. The evidence Arp presents must be seriously considered because it is thorough and the evidence is quite daunting and has enormous implications.

I offer this report to the staff and Board, along with attachments as evidence of the acceleration of new research and new thought that surely is creating a major paradigm shift for the 21^st century just as surely as relativity and quantum mechanics did for the 20^th.