Has anyone ever had the uncanny experience of “seeing stars” in your mind after a sneeze or a blow to the head.
I just sneezed and I experience a small fireworks of twinkling lights in my brain. It was very interesting, but unfortunately lasted only a few seconds and then faded.
Still, the experience made me wonder how the brain could produce visible (holographic) twinkling lights from a physical stimulation such as pressure on the brain. Interesting question.
“Phosphene.” It’s a universal thing.
It can happen when you sneeze, blow your nose hard, cough, rub your eyes, feel faint, get hit on the head, choke, stand up too quickly, are in total darkness for a while with your eyes open, use certain drugs, get magnetic stimulation to the head, etc. – anything that creates pressure, or a sudden change of pressure, on the retina (in your eyeballs).
The brain interprets any signals from the retina as “light.”
My guess is that blind people experience this too, since it has nothing to do with actual light. At least if they still have their eyeballs.
Yes, that’s what I thought.
My current passion is research on "microtubules, because I believe they are the secret to consciousness.
Tee reminded me of phosphene which originates in the optic nerves (microtubules)
Microtubules and filaments in developing axons and optic stalk cells
Abstract Fibrous structures have been studied in the developing optic nerve of chick embryos. The first ganglion cell axons (3-day embryos) were of moderate size, with both neurofilaments and microtubules. Subsequently (4- and 5-day embryos), very small axons were also present. In thesc embryos and in the 4-day hatched chick, the density of microtubules fell within the same range for all but the very small axons, which tended to have more microtubules per unit area. Filaments similar to those previously thought to represent neurofilaments in other parts of the embryonic nervous system were present in the early optic stalk cells, calling into question the reliability of identifying early nerve cells on the basis of ‘neurofilaments’.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040816671800411
If microtubules are responsible for conscious experiences, it would narrow down the area of research and provide a baseline for measurement of “consciousness in relation number of microtubules”.
p.s. there are more microtubules than human cells. The body contains trillions of microtubules and they are responsible for the most fundamental of all biological phenomena, i.e. “cell division”.
Reading that made my eyeballs hurt.
Microtubules are remarkable building machines in all Eukaryotic organisms. It is a nano-scale biological processor and is responsible for all cell-division in living organisms . They are the heart of all neural systems in the body, they build the cytoskeleton that keeps us upright, they transport all kinds of chemical information to where it is needed, and in the brain, I submit, are responsible for “information procesing” and “conscious decision making” and producing experiential phenomena, such as seeing “stars in your mind”.
How microtubules branch in new directions, a first look in animals Biologists say visualization of an essential mitotic pathway in living animal cells is a firstThat is when they witnessed the branching. Using multi-color TIRF microscopy, the researchers could now clearly see and quantitatively define the branching microtubule nucleation process. To the best of their knowledge, this had never been visualized before in real time in animal cells. “It was very exciting,” Verma recalls.
Maresca says, “When you see such beautiful things right before your eyes, you just have to follow it. This project started out as an investigation of how cells define where they divide, but we saw this branching phenomenon so often and so clearly that we realized we had to look at it more closely. We don’t think you could have seen the branching process as well in other model systems as you can in our fruit fly cells. It highlights the fact that every model system has its strengths and its weaknesses and, in this case, our cells and the phase at which we were imaging them just offered a uniquely beautiful, birds-eye view of branching. We could actually see all of this happening in real time before our eyes.”
Discovery of quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' inside brain neurons supports controversial theory of consciousnessSummary:A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in “microtubules” inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions.
Here is a picture of the microtubule processor This is at nano-scale in our body.They are the little machine responsible for cell division itself!
https://www.slideshare.net/fmdavis123/quantum-biology-61276088
“When you see such beautiful things right before your eyes, you just have to follow it"
"The phase at which we were imaging them just offered a uniquely beautiful, birds-eye view of branching. We could actually see all of this happening in real time before our eyes"I don't know whether this particular scientist believes in God or not, but folks who think "science" has no "soul" and destroys one's ability to note the magnificence and amazement at the universe or human body or whatever, are just wrong.
TeeBP said,I don’t know whether this particular scientist believes in God or not, but folks who think “science” has no “soul” and destroys one’s ability to note the magnificence and amazement at the universe or human body or whatever, are just wrong.
The convenience of ignorance does not yield the satisfaction of knowledge.
Write, What activates these “deeper level microtubule vibrations”? Apparently they can be influenced by gross artificial external inputs. But typically, how do they get activated? Are they effected by the brain’s regular functioning?
TimB said,
Write, What activates these “deeper level microtubule vibrations”? Apparently they can be influenced by gross artificial external inputs. But typically, how do they get activated? Are they effected by the brain’s regular functioning?
From what I understand microtubules are the processors that make the brain functional.
Hameroff cites an example that catastrophic microtubule failure is associated with Alzheimers.
And the microtubules that form consciousness are subject to anesthesia. This is why we can be rendered unconscious, but the microtubules at the “motor” levels remain functional. That’s why we don not die even as we are uncoscious. The “control microtubule netweork” remain unaffected.
As to the “quantum” aspect that is Roger Penrose’s expertise and I get the impression that Penrose is proposing quantum at a barely macro level and not all the way down to Planck scale. All this happens just above the Planck level at nano-scale.
I’ve shown this before, but I find it fascinating and in view that ALL eukaryotic biology share microtubules as a “common denominator” suggests to me that microtubels are not just involved in the growth and maintenance of the body, but also the source of an emergent consciousness.
Migrating birds use microtubules in their eyes to sense magnetic fields and can navigate by their patterns. IMO, this requires a “conscious” perception and internal holographic visualization. Perhaps somewhat similar to seeing “stars” in your mind?
I am not especially interested in the ORCH OR theory as I am in the astounding capabilities of this very simple self-organizing biological processor.
This interesting interview of Hameroff, explains his thinking and why microtubules are the most promising common denominator of all living things.
p.s. There are 6 videos in this interview. I don’t dare post links lest I lose them all. But they are easily accessible in YouTube under the same title.