Why Consciousness Must Be Quantum Mechanical | Stuart Hameroff

Stuart Hameroff explains his groundbreaking work with Roger Penrose, and what it illuminates about panpsychism, the origins of life, psychedelics, and the viability of a soul which can exist beyond the grave.

For decades, physicists have explored the idea that consciousness causes the collapse of the wavefunction— the moment quantum particles cease being in strange superpositions of states. Esteemed anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, following his collaboration with Roger Penrose, proposes a different story: consciousness is the collapse itself. Hameroff discusses compelling experimental evidence suggesting the process occurs within microtubules in the brain. He also explores the non-computable nature of consciousness, the connections between his research and his spirituality, as well as insights into his research relating to psychedelics.

Stuart Hameroff is a Professor of Psychology and Anesthesiology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Interviewed by Ricky Williamson.

00:00 Introduction
00:15 What makes your theory of consciousness the best one around?
01:35 Is consciousness noncomputational?
05:22 Is the objective reduction the superposition collapse from the subject’s side?
07:17 Is the platonic form consciousness?
07:58 How do spirituality and science mix?
13:00 How can you test this theory when consciousness isfamously unobservable?
15:12 Is consciousness a driving force in creating human life?
19:33 What would you say to people who ask for proof?
22:40 Can you explain the psychedelic rings on the asteroid?
23:32 Can the psychedelic experience be explained by quantum collapses?
24:55 Have you done psychedelics, and how has that informed your thinking?
25:58 How have your theories changed the way you see the world?