Center for Consciousness Center . Tucson . Arizona

TSC 2011

STOCKHOLM

AULA MAGNA

Evening Public Forum - Monday, May 2, 2011, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Science, Consciousness and Spirituality
Aula Magna Hall, Stockholm University

Scientific accounts of the brain as neuronal computer portray consciousness as epiphenomenal illusion without causal power,

free will or spirituality. Subjective reports and spiritual teachings (interconnectedness among living beings, guiding wisdom inherent in the universe, conscious awareness after death) have seemed scientifically impossible, pushing scientists toward atheism or dualism. However in recent decades quantum biology has been considered as a basis for consciousness and spirituality, and end-of-life brain activity defies conventional explanations. Can quantum physics bridge science and spirituality?

Program

Moderator

Mia-Marie Hammarlin, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media, Lund University

5:00-5:15 pm End-of-Life Conscious Experience

Peter Fenwick, Institute of Psychiatry, Southampton University, Kings College, London

5:15-5:30 pm God and Quantum Mechanics

Ignacio Silva, Theology, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford

5:30-5:45 pm Quantum Physics and Eastern Philosophy

Tarja Kallio-Tamminen, Physicist, philosopher, author, Helsinki, Finland

5:45-6:00 pm Consciousness and Ultimate Reality

Deepak Chopra, Physician, author, spiritual leader, The Chopra Center, Carlsbad, CA

6:00-6:30 pm Panel/Commentary

Leonard Mlodinow, Physicist, co-author of Grand Design with Stephen Hawking

Lluis Oviedo, Franciscan Theologian, Rome

Paola Zizzi, Astrophysicist, University of Padua

Giorgio Innocenti, Karolinska Institute

Menas Kafatos, Physicist, author, Chapman University

Stuart Hameroff, Physician, Consciousness researcher, The University of Arizona

6:30-7:00 pm General discussion

Speaker Bios and Abstracts in order of appearance

Moderator

Mia-Marie Hammarlin

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media

Lund University

Peter Fenwick MD

Psychiatry, Southampton

End of life conscious experience

Peter Fenwick is Consultant Neuropsychiatrist emeritus to the Epilepsy Unit at the Maudsley Hospital, which he ran for twenty years. He is presently appointed as a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry and Southampton University, and Honorary Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist at Broadmoor Hospital. Over the last ten years he has spent several months a year working in the field of magnetoencephalography in a neuroscience research laboratory in Japan. Dr Fenwick has a long standing interest in brain function and the problem of consciousness and has published a large number of research papers related to altered states of consciousness, and abnormalities of consciousness and behaviour. He has researched into meditation and continues to be interested in the relationship between meditative states. One of his main interests for some years has been near death experiences and the dying process, and he is at present carrying out a research project in hospices in the UK, Holland and Japan into the experiences reported by the dying and their carers around the time of death. He has co-authored several books with his wife, most recently The Art of Dying. Other titles are a study of near death experiences, “The Truth in the Light”, and of dreams “The Hidden Door.”

ABSTRACT Fenwick, P.

Plenary 14, End of life brain activity, Saturday May 7, 11:10 to 1:20 pm

282 Death and the loosening of consciousness Peter Fenwick <peter_fenwick@compuserve.com> (Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, Southampton Univ., London, United Kingdom)

There is a growing awareness of the importance of end of life experiences. These comprise transcendental and spiritual features which support the dying through the last days of life, and paranormal phenomena around the time of death which are comforting for the bereaved. Our data base consists of retrospective and prospective studies of a population of carers in hospices and a nursing home in the UK, and a retrospective study of carers in Holland. Added to this are over 1500 accounts from a largely English sample of the general public in response to media discussions. The dying process as described by these people will be discussed. The dying process may start one to two years before death with a premonition about one's own death. In the weeks before death there may be 'visits' by apparitions of dead relatives who indicate that they will soon return to accompany the dying person on their journey through death. As the process continues, some indication may be given by these visitors of the likely time they will return. Next, some people report that they transit between this reality and another reality consisting of love, light and compassion. At the time of death, light surrounding the body and shapes leaving the body are reported. Deathbed coincidences occur, when some kind of contact is made between the dying person and someone at a distance to whom they are emotionally close. This 'connectedness' seems to extend both to animals, which become distressed, and even to mechanisms such as clocks which are often reported to stop at the time of death. One hypothesis is that the process of death seems to be related to the stages of loosening of consciousness. PL14

Ignacio Silva PhD

Theology, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford

God and quantum mechanics

Ignacio Silva studied philosophy at the Catholic University of Argentina, specializing in Philosophy of Science and Medieval Philosophy. He then studied History and Philosophy of Science, and moved to Oxford to study Science and Religion at the Theology Faculty, where he received a masters and a doctorate (on divine action in nature and quantum mechanics). Dr. Silva is now conducting a three-year project at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (at the Theology Faculty, Oxford) called 'Science and Religion in Latin America'.

Tarja Kallio-Tamminen PhD

Physicist, philosopher, author, Helsinki, Finland

Quantum physics and Eastern philosophy

Tarja Kallio-Tamminen is a natural philosopher who focuses on the ultimate questions of reality, in particular the place of human being in the overall scheme of existence. Kallio-Tamminen has completed her degrees in high energy physics (M.Sc.) and theoretical philosophy (Ph.D.) at the University of Helsinki focusing on the foundations, implications and interpretations of quantum mechanics. She has been actively working as a researcher, lecturer and science writer in Finland and in Sweden. Recently, she spent half a year in Vienna at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Information when intrigued by the experiments showing quantum waves and entangled states in the macroscopic world.

ABSTRACT Kallio-Tamminen, Tarja PL 6 WEDNESDAY MAY 4 8:30 am to 10:40 am Consciousness and Reality II

203 Quantum physics and Eastern philosophy Tarja Kallio Tamminen <kallio.tamminen@elisanet.fi> (Kalpa Taru, Helsinki, Finland)
Quantum physics has obscured the prevailing concept of reality - the particle-mechanistic world view which was created at the turn of the modern era. The quantum revolution gave rise to a prolonged interpretational debate which disclosed that the metaphysical ideas adopted along with the Newtonian physics are deficient: it is far from obvious how we should understand the qualities and status of the fundamental substance of reality, the relation between the parts and the whole and the role and locus of human beings. The new features encountered in the quantum realm revealed a new kind holism, an immediate intrinsic connection between local and global phenomena which is contributing to the formation of things. Atomism, reductionism and determinism turned out not to be universally applicable ideas. This fact repudiates the dogma of nature as mechanical which was the main rationale for Descartes to present his substance dualism. There exists no corporeal basis for the outrageous mind-body distinction that has haunted philosophy throughout the modern era, preventing a proper understanding of what is the role of consciousness in nature, or how mental phenomena and human decisions contribute to the change and evolution observed in nature. In its search of new metaphysical presuppositions and starting points natural philosophy may once again benefit from the ontological and epistemological hypotheses that were discussed in antiquity within the schools that opposed the atomists, but valuable resources can also be gained from the insights of Eastern philosophy. Both traditions cherished the concept of reality as an interrelated, hierarchically leveled whole, a view which is in accordance with the idea of causally active humans who still remain subordinate to the balanced, lawful action of the whole. If our knowledge, values and goals are intrinsic to the fabric of reality, our struggle for deeper knowledge naturally affects the formation of ourselves as well as the environment around us. An enhanced awareness of the inner and outer structures existing in the world grants us with a greater autonomy and responsibility - bestowing some dignity and sense of purpose for human life. Contrary to the promises of the Newtonian clockwork, yoga philosophy has never accepted the fundamental gap between mind and body. The mental and material aspects of nature are intrinsically integrated, and the formation of man's mental machinery always stays in connection with his conscious decisions. The universe does not resist personal growth or the attainment of human objectives. Rather the internal development and ethical advance are prerequisites for a proper life and an ecologically sustainable future. PL6

Deepak Chopra

Physician, author, spiritual leader

Consciousness and ultimate reality

Deepak Chopra, MD is the Founder and Chairman of the Chopra Foundation, and Founder and co-Chairman of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and Gallup Senior Scientist. Chopra is known as a prolific author of over fifty-five books with eighteen New York Times best sellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace. He is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post On Faith and contributes regularly to Oprah.com, Intent.com, and Huffington Post. Chopra’s Wellness Radio airs weekly on Sirius/XM Stars, Channels 102 and 55, which focuses on the areas - success, love, sexuality and relationships, well-being, and spirituality. -- Time Magazine heralds Deepak Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century, and credits him as “the poet-prophet of alternative medicine.” – Time Magazine, June 1999

ABSTRACT Deepak Chopra Plenary 3, Tuesday, May 3 2:00 pm to 4:10 pm Consciousness and Reality I

211 Vedic approaches to consciousness and reality Deepak Chopra MD <carolyn@chopra.com> (The Chopra Foundation, Carlsbad, CA )
According to Vedic science, consciousness is the ground of all existence that differentiates into mind and matter, subject and object, energy, information, space, time, and the entire universe. In other words, the totality of the universe is nothing other than consciousness in all its diverse forms and aspects. In my talk, I will explain how the Vedic world view looks at morphogenesis and differentiation and postulates how consciousness becomes the universe. In the Vedic world view consciousness is not limited to the domains of mind or matter, but is the precursor and substratum of both, the basis of both personal and collective reality. This includes cognition, emotions and moods, perception, social interactions, personal relationships, environment, the forces of nature, and all biological expression. The Vedic world view also holds that we have no way of postulating a reality outside of consciousness as we have no experience or knowledge of being outside of consciousness. I will also discuss the expansion of awareness to higher states of consciousness, from deep sleep, dreaming, wakeful consciousness, soul consciousness, cosmic consciousness, divine consciousness, and unity consciousness. Finally, I will discuss various states of expanded consciousness (Lokas in Vedic traditions), how reality differs among them, and how they may correlate with different frequency and spatial scale domains in spacetime geometry. Deepak Chopra, MD - www.deepakchopra.com PL3

Leonard Mlodinow PhD

physicist, author of Grand Design with Stephen Hawking

Leonard Mlodinow holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California at Berkeley, has been an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik und Astrophysik in Munich, and on the physics faculty of California Institute of Technology. He has authored numerous publications in academic physics journals as well as in the popular press, and has written 5 popular science books, which now appear in 25 languages -- Euclid's Window: The story of geometry from parallel lines to hyperspace (2001); Feynman's Rainbow: a search for beauty in physics and in life (2003); A Briefer History of Time (2005, co-authored with Stephen Hawking); the New York Times best-seller, editor’s choice, and notable book of the year, The Drunkard’s Walk: the story of randomness and its role in our lives (2008), short listed for the Royal Society book award; and the #1 best seller The Grand Design (2010, co-authored with Stephen Hawking). With Matt Costello, he co-authored the children’s book series The Kids of Einstein Elementary. Dr. Mlodinow also wrote for network television for many years, including the series MacGyver, and Star Trek, Next Generation, and the comedy Night Court, has appeared in front of the camera on numerous television talk shows including Larry King Live on CNN. His writing awards include the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking and the Liber Press Award from the Spanish publisher. He was also a pioneer in computer games, as producer, executive producer and designer of several award-winning games. Between 1997 and 2003 he was Vice President for software development for the New York publisher Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter series, where he created a children’s games division and built it into one of the top five in the United States.

ABSTRACT Leonard Mlodinow Plenary 3 Tuesday, May 3 2:00 pm to 4:10 pm Consciousness and Reality I

212 The Grand Design of our Universe Leonard Mlodinow <len@caltech.edu> (Pasadena, CA )
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? Is the apparent 'grand design' of our universe evidence of consciousness or a benevolent creator who set things in motion - or does science offer another explanation? The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, one the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet - if only to disagree. In my talk, The Grand Design, I will present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the cosmos, and describe the current theories of the fundamental forces of nature, and the origin and evolution of the universe in nontechnical language. PL3

Lluis Oviedo

Franciscan Theologian,

Antonianum University

ABSTRACT Lluis Oviedo, Concurrent 15,

297 Religion As Conscious Behavior Lluis Oviedo <loviedo@antonianum.eu> (Theology, Antonianum University, Roma, Italy)
Cognitive and behavioral research on religion has focused most in the last years on aspects which could be deemed 'unconscious': inner mechanisms, innate patterns, or hidden structures broadly shared by humans. Very often the ongoing research programs resort to computational models of mind in which the conscious side of that experience is mainly ignored or not taken into account. There are obviously many problems when the conscious aspects of religion are assumed as an important variable, since such a move appears as a methodological transfer to less scientific and more hermeneutic or phenomenological fields. However, religion cannot be rightly studied and known without taking into account its conscious aspects; indeed, religion and consciousness appear as often deeply related categories, once some religious ways point to higher forms of awareness. In this keynote, a research program is described to what could mean a scientific study of the conscious aspects of religious behavior. To start with, the study should establish what difference makes at the cognitive and behavioral levels the assumption of the role played by conscious elaboration, or - in other words - what distinguishes a religious conscious mind from a 'religious zombie'. A second step needs to deal with the relationship between conscious thought and unconscious processing, as both dimensions are clearly involved, and each one in different measure; at this end, cognitive and emotional aspects as well need to be considered. The third step would describe experimental methods which could render the study of the religious conscious mind a more 'scientific enterprise', in a way able to recover that often neglected dimension in current research. C15

Paola Zizzi

Astrophysicist

University of Padua

Paola Zizzi is with the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics, University of Padova, Italy. She is also guest scientist at the Department of Astronomy, University of Padova and meember of the International Quantum Structure Association and the Quantum Consciousness Group at the University of Arizona

ABSTRACT Paola Zizzi Plenary 3 Tuesday, May 3 2:00 pm to 4:10 pm Consciousness and Reality I

210 Consciousness In The Early Universe Paola Zizzi <paola.zizzi@unipv.it> (Dept. of Psychology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy)
The theory of Inflation describes the very early universe as expanding at an exponential rate. Inflation lasted an extremely short time. During inflation, the universe is a de Sitter universe: is totally empty, expands exponentially, and has an event horizon. Quantum de Sitter horizons can be modelled by the quantum holographic principle, that is attaching a qubit (a quantum bit) of information to each pixel of area. The quantum de Sitter horizons of the early universe were superposed quantum memory registers. Through considerations of the actual entropy of the universe, we computed that the quantum information processed during inflation was 10^18 qubits. This means that at the end of inflation, it was selected, by self-decoherence, the n-th 10^9 quantum register. In the Orch OR model of Penrose-Hameroff, 10^9 is the number of tubulins-qubits which are superposed in a state of pre-consciousness, giving rise to a conscious state up to decoherence, and 10^18 is the total number of tubulins-qubits in our brain. Then, we suggested that at the end of inflation the universe had a cosmic conscious experience. PL3

Giorgio Innocenti,

Karolinska neuroscientist

Prof. Giorgio M. Innocenti

Department of Neuroscience

Karolinska Institutet

Giorgio Innocenti graduated from Turin Medical School, in Italy where he also specialized in neuro-psychiatry in 1970. He has held academic positions at Turin and Catania Medical schools (I), and professorships at Lausanne Medical School (CH) and, since 1998, at the Neuroscience Department of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (S). He has worked as fellow or invited researcher at the Institute for Biophysical Chemistry of Max-Planck society in Göttingen (D), Federal Institute for Biophysics of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Georgetown University in Washington (US) Department of Neuroscience in Alicante (E). He has been member of council of the European Neuroscience Association (ENA), of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), president of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) and of the Rodin Academy. He is or has been member of the editorial board of several scientific journals (including Exp. Brain Res, Dev Brain Res, Cer Cortex, Eur J Neurosci, Brain Struct Funct) and referee for several other journals, granting agencies or academic institutions. His field of interests is the physiology and anatomy of cortical areas and interhemispheric interactions in animals and humans, with experimental approaches including morphological investigations of single neurons, intra and extracellular recordings, imaging and EEG. He is credited for the discovery of the overproduction and elimination of axons in cortical development, the key for understanding early neurological or psychiatric pathologies as well as adaptive developmental plasticity.

Menas Kafatos

Physicist, author

Chapman University

Menas Kafatos joined Chapman University in 2008 as the Vice Chancellor for Special Projects and is also Founding Dean of the Schmid College of Science, Director of the Center for Excellence in Applied, Computational, and Fundamental Science, and is a Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics. He received his B.A. in Physics from Cornell University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. After postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he joined George Mason University and was University Professor of Interdisciplinary Sciences there from 1984-2008. He also served as Dean of the School of Computational Sciences and was Director of the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research. He has 34 years experience in undergraduate and graduate Earth systems science, hazards, remote sensing and data information systems, physics, computational and theoretical astrophysics, astronomy, and foundations in quantum theory. He has published numerous books including The Conscious Universe, the Non-local Universe (with Robert Nadeau, Springer-Verlag), Principles of Integrative Science (with Mihai Draganescu, Romanian Academy of Sciences Press), and more than 250 articles on computational science, astrophysics, Earth systems science, hazards and global change, general relativity, cosmology, foundations of quantum theory, and consciousness. He has helped foster several Memorandums of Understanding with several international institutions such as Peking University, Seoul National University, Korea University Ewha Womans University and recently made a research agreement for remote sensing/GIS with Korea University and climate change with Ewha Womans University. Dr. Kafatos has wide interests in several fields of science and information science: Earth System Science/Earth Observing/Remote Sensing: Interdisciplinary Earth system science; natural hazards and climate change; aerosols and pollution; vegetation and climate change coupling; tropical cyclones; Earth Observing System observations. Data Information Systems: Federated, distributed data information system architecture; content-based Earth science data browsing; user interfaces; distributed data systems and associated technologies. Astrophysics and Space Sciences: Black holes, active galaxies and quasars; accretion hydrodynamics in curved metrics; General Relativity; high-energy emission from cosmic sources; ultraviolet astronomy, symbiotic stars; atomic physics; cosmological redshifts. Foundations of Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Consciousness: Cosmological observations and their limitations; Universal Diagrams; foundations of quantum theory; quantum theory and brain dynamics; consciousness as the unifying field in the cosmos.

ABSTRACT Menas Kafatos Plenary 6 WEDNESDAY MAY 4 8:30 am to 10:40 am Consciousness and Reality II

218 Consciousness and the universe: Non-local, entangled, probabilistic and complementary reality Menas Kafatos <kafatos@chapman.edu> (Schmid College of Science, Chapman University, Schmid College of Science, Orange, CA )
The riddle of consciousness remains the last frontier of science. Whereas the physical universe is primarily studied through physics with exceeding successful results, most if not all, attempts to address the fundamental nature of consciousness through science have failed. The dilemma is real and the usual approaches are two-fold: Either completely ignore consciousness, or account it by appealing to some future, unspecified and unknown scientific theory. Both approaches are decidedly unscientific. Yet, quantum theory is showing us the way that one should proceed. It was developed to account for processes in the microcosm but it has also opened the door to the issue of consciousness. Many quantum physicists hold the view that the participatory role of observation is fundamental and the underlying 'stuff' of the cosmos are innumerable quantum processes, rather than some immutable material substance. Despite the successes achieved, some fundamental problems remain, most notably the issue of self-awareness: How does one address the self-aware subject as an object? As such, consciousness may ultimately have to be addressed in an integral way and may well be the case that it is primary, rather than secondary epiphenomenon. Physics describes the structure, evolution of the universe and processes within it. Can present day physics, and particularly quantum theory, though fully account for consciousness? Can we devise a theory of consciousness? We show here that the problem is either exceedingly difficult or exceedingly simple. The simple ontological approach we favor here, is that we cannot extract consciousness from the physical universe, we cannot study its nature as an object. The act of observation, quantum theory tells us, is inexorably tied to the nature of what we are studying. We discuss here why this leads to an unfolding view of the universe, a new science, much richer and unfathomable than we ever imagined. The opposite approach, to delegate a secondary nature to consciousness or, even worse, to completely ignore it, will not yield anything of practical value in understanding reality and how we fit in the universe. The new science we propose here will accept the qualitative aspects of conscious Reality or Being, which cannot be put in an algorithmic development: A Reality of infinite entangled possibilities described by probabilistic mathematical theory, a Reality containing ever complex complementarities, a non-local and undivided wholeness, exhibiting scale-invariant, holographic structures and relationships. These fundamental principles provide clues as to the properties of consciousness and hint at the ultimate nature of Reality. They will form the foundation for a new physics of consciousness, wherein we will give up trying to externally define the nature of consciousness, and instead aim to understand its properties, how it operates. We anticipate that more fundamental mathematical developments than differential geometry and dynamical equations will take us to the next step and our understanding will have at some point lead to qualitative and perennial statements. The new science of wholeness will be as much scientific as present day science but it will based on the fundamental role of consciousness in the universe. PL6

Stuart Hameroff,

Physician, consciousness researcher

University of Arizona

Stuart Hameroff is a clinical anesthesiologist, Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Beginning in the early 1970s, Hameroff has studied biomolecular mechanisms underlying consciousness, actions of anesthetic gases and information processing in cytoskeletal microtubules inside living cells. In 1994 Hameroff teamed with British physicist Sir Roger Penrose in the controversial Orch OR theory of consciousness, based on quantum computations in microtubules inside neurons.

ABSTRACT Stuart Hameroff PLENARY 13 SATURDAY, MAY 7 8:30 am to 10:40 am Anesthesia and consciousness

136 Meyer-Overton meets quantum physics: Consciousness, memory and anesthetic binding in tubulin hydrophobic channels Stuart Hameroff , Travis Craddock, Dept. of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Jack Tuszynski, Division of Experimental Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton AB Canada <hameroff@u.arizona.edu> (Anethesiology, UMC, Univ of AZ, Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, )
Introduction Anesthetic gases selectively erase conscious awareness and memory, sparing non-conscious brain activities. At the turn of the 20th century, Meyer and Overton found anesthetic potency correlates with solubility/binding in a non-polar, hydrophobic environment, subsequently shown to be hydrophobic pockets within proteins (Franks and Lieb, 1984), including 70 receptors, ion channels and tubulin in cytoskeletal microtubules (Eckenhoff et al, 2002). Anesthetic gases bind in hydrophobic regions by quantum London forces, electron cloud dipole couplings with non-polar amino acid residues, e.g. phenylalanine and tryptophan. Theories suggest anesthetic quantum actions in protein hydrophobic regions (Hameroff, 2006), and quantum computations in microtubules supporting consciousness (Hameroff and Penrose, 1996). Evidence for functional quantum effects in warm biology include ion channels and microtubules (e.g. megahertz coherence, lossless conductance through helical lattice pathways, Bandyopadhyay, 2011). Quantum processes in microtubule hydrophobic regions are potential sites for consciousness and anesthetic action. Methods We used molecular modeling of tubulin to identify tryptophan, phenylalanine and anesthetic binding sites, and calculated anesthetic-tubulin binding energies and affinities. Results Within tubulin, 8 tryptophans and 32 phenylalanines cluster and align (< 2 nanometer separation) along tubulin-tubulin helical pathways. Predictive anesthetic binding energies are between -2.54 and -3.12 kcal/mol, corresponding to dissociation constants (binding affinity) between 6 and 16 millimolar. Anesthetics bind at 5 putative sites, e.g. within 6 angstroms (0.6 nanometer) of an aligned tryptophan with a binding energy of -2.74 kcal/mol (11.7 millimolar). Discussion Anesthetic-tubulin binding is 10 to 100 times weaker than anesthetic binding to other neuronal proteins, e.g. GABAa receptors. However there are 100 times more tubulins than GABAa receptors per neuron. Intra-tubulin hydrophobic channels match microtubule lattice helical pathways, and may account for lossless conductance (Bandyopadhyay, 2011) and topological quantum computing implicated in consciousness and memory (Hameroff et al, 2002; 2010). Microtubule hydrophobic channels (possibly quantum entangled with GABAa receptors and other neuronal proteins) are viable candidates for consciousness, memory and anesthetic action. References Bandyopadhyay A (2011) TSC abstracts www.consciousness.arizona.edu; Eckenhoff et al (2002) J Pharm Exp Ther 300:172-9; Franks and Lieb (1984) Nature 310:599-610; Hameroff S, Penrose R (1996) J Consciousness Studies 3(1)36-53; Hameroff et al (2002) Biosystems 64:149-162; Hameroff S (2006) Anesthesiology 105:400-412; Hameroff et al (2010) J Integrative Neuroscience 9(3)253-267 PL13

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