The Quantum Self: Human Nature and Consciousness Defined by the New Physics

The authors of this heady discourse seek nothing less than a physics of human consciousness grounded in quantum mechanics. British philosopher Zohar and her husband, Marshall, a psychiatrist, argue that consciouness arises through the interaction of the fundamental building-blocks of mind (photons, virtual photons) and of matter (electrons, protons, neutrons). Out of the ``correlated jiggling of molecules in neuron cell walls'' (i.e., Bose-Einstein condensates), a human self emerges that is integrally linked to other selves, much as two particles, though light-years apart, may interact. Quantum physics, more than a metaphor, is used here as an explanatory tool, a means to help us go beyond the isolation and narcissism of modern culture. The authors take a perilous speculative leap from a recognition of the creativity built into all living systems to ``our selves as co-authors of the world.'' Illustrated. (Feb.)