SAN FRANCISCO - Nov. 21, 2019 - In a research publication released 11/19, Todd Murphy suggests that consciousness is an underlying property of all magnetic fields, including the one in the brain (with its five million magnetite crystals per gram). The brain's magnetic field, coming from these microscopic magnets, "sees" the brain's electrical activity, letting us know what it's doing. The many positive and negative poles of the brain's magnets serve as in/out feedback channels, essential for awareness, allowing our brain's complex magnetic field to support vast feedback mechanisms.
Prof. Todd Murphy points out that electrical currents in brain cells also create magnetism (Maxwell's Equations), influencing the fields from the brain's magnetite. Its magnetic field (consciousness) "picks up," or resonates with, information encoded in neuronal electric pulses, coming from emotions, thoughts, and the senses.
Consciousness is what the brain's inner magnetic field, with its many sources, feels like. Living things are aware through their senses because the brain's inner magnetic field, produced by its millions of tiny magnets, receives all its electrical sensory information. The neural magnetic field broadcasts all of it throughout the brain, at a fraction of the speed of light, instantly combining all ongoing experiences.
Todd Murphy, associated with Laurentian University's Neuroscience Program since 1998, also suggests that simpler magnetic fields support simple consciousness, as in animals with rudimentary senses (such as eyes that are only aware of darkness or light). More complex consciousness, like that of humans or other primates, require more developed nervous systems, and much larger numbers of magnetite crystals. Their greater nuances of thought and emotion give people more to be aware of.
Proving it will be a challenge, because science can't prove that anything is conscious. The only way to know consciousness exists is through subjective experience, which isn't admissible as scientific evidence. However, Murphy suggests several tests that would help support his theory.
Murphy's paper, "Solving the "Hard Problem": Consciousness as an Intrinsic Property of Magnetic Fields" appears in the Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research. He's published several journal articles,and three books in neuroscience.
Todd Murphy can be contacted at: brainsci@jps.net
His author page can be seen here: https://tinyurl.com/murphy-todd
End.
Murphy, Todd "Solving the "Hard Problem": Consciousness as an Intrinsic Property of Magnetic Fields" Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, 2019, 10(8) p. 800-813 Link: https://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/835/850
Kirschivink, Joseph L., (et al.). "Magnetite biomineralization in the Human Brain", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 1992, 89 7683-7687
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