Supports· moderateORCH-E020
Consciousness-dependent zero-quantum-coherence signals in living human brains
- what the source states
- The authors report using a zero-quantum-coherence MRI protocol, derived from proposals for witnessing quantum gravity, in which detected signals should not arise from classical sources. They observed heartbeat-evoked potential-like signals in living human brains that did not correlate with any conventional MRI contrast, and which changed in relation to conscious awareness — subjects reported the signal disappearing as they fell asleep. The abstract concludes: "Our findings suggest that we may have witnessed entanglement mediated by consciousness-related brain functions. Those brain functions must then operate non-classically, which would mean that consciousness is non-classical."
- what we infer
- The single most consequential result in this case if it survives — direct evidence of non-classical function in a living brain would be a landmark independent of Orch OR. Two things restrain the weight given here. It is contested on methodological grounds by a leading NMR authority (ORCH-E021) and has not been independently replicated. And its scope is narrower than proponent summaries suggest: the experiment does not implicate microtubules at all, the mediator is unidentified, and the known quantum systems in the measurement are proton spins of bulk water. A fully validated result would establish non-classical brain function while leaving every microtubule claim untouched.
- limitations
- Entanglement-witness interpretation disputed in the same journal; no independent replication.
- Mediating system unidentified; microtubules not implicated by the experiment.
- Small sample; consciousness manipulation was naturalistic sleep onset rather than a controlled intervention.
- The authors' own wording is heavily hedged ('suggest that we may have witnessed'), and secondary summaries frequently drop the hedge.