Page 135 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

116 Mysteries of the Mind

on the totality of impulses that it receives
Introduction
from the upstream nerves, the receiving nerve
erhaps the greatest mystery of the decides whether or not to fire. In this manner,
human mind is how the brain gives rise electrical impulses are processed in the brain
P to consciousness. A three-pound mass before being transmitted to the physical body.
of spongy tissue somehow makes humans con- However, while this movement of ions and
scious of what they see, hear, touch, taste, chemicals may trace the process of thinking
smell, think, remember, and dream. This same and reacting, it still does not reveal the region
grey matter allows humans to have subjective of the brain that specializes in consciousness.
experiences of love, friendship, and the appre- Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the
ciation of music, art, and literature. In addi- School of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the
tion to conscious awareness, mystical states of University of Surrey in the United Kingdom,
consciousness appear to permit extrasensory has remarked that it is consciousness that
communication with other human beings and makes individuals human. Without conscious-
even allow prophetic glimpses of the future. ness, “…language, creativity, emotions, spiri-
The psychologist William James (1842– tuality, logical deduction, mental arithmetic,
1910) once wrote that we know what con- our sense of fairness, truth, ethics, are all
sciousness is—as long as no one asks us to inconceivable,” McFadden told the May 17,
define it. Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman, 2002, issue of Science News.
director of the Neurosciences Institute, has McFadden theorizes that the mystery of
commented that what is most daunting about consciousness might be solved by considering
consciousness is that it doesn’t seem to be a the conscious mind as an electromagnetic
matter of behavior—it just is. “Multiple and field. Every time a nerve fires, according to
simultaneous in its modes and objects, McFadden, the electrical activity sends a sig-
ineluctably ours,” Edelman has said, “it is a nal to the brain’s electromagnetic (em) field.
process and one that is hard to score. We know However, unlike solitary nerve signals, infor-
what it is in ourselves, but can only judge its mation that reaches the brain’s em field is
existence in others by inductive inference.” automatically linked together with all the
While no contemporary scientist would other signals in the brain, and the brain’s em
disagree that it is the brain that generates con- field creates the binding process that is char-
sciousness, there is no consensus regarding acteristic of consciousness.
which parts of the brain are responsible for While the conscious electromagnetic
conscious experience. By assuming, as many information field remains a theory, McFadden
scientists do, that consciousness is generated believes that it explains, among other things,
by neurons with special properties or locations why conscious actions feel so different from
in the brain, they leave unanswered the fun- unconscious ones, “because they plug into the
damental question: What is the process by vast pool of information held in the brain’s
which the brain gives rise to consciousness? electromagnetic field.” And the em field of
Which raises another question: How does the brain is more than a repository of informa-
conscious brain activity differ from the brain tion. It can influence human activity by push-
activity directing all of the unconscious actions ing some neurons toward firing and others
that have become as automatic as breathing? away from firing. If his theory can be demon-
strated to be true, McFadden says, it will
Scientists generally agree about the
process involved in the brain responding with reveal “many fascinating implications for the
thought when, for example, one sees an concept of free will, the nature of creativity or
object. Signals from the retina of the eye trav- spirituality, consciousness in animals, and
el along nerves as waves of electrically even the significance of life and death.”
charged ions. When these waves reach the This chapter will explore many mysteries
nerve terminus, the signal is transmitted to of the mind, most of which presently defy sci-
the next nerve via neurotransmitters. Based entific elucidation. While science may be able

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained