Abstract:  While materialism seems to be implied by the prevalent understanding of science, the traditional view has been called into question by new data regarding cellular microstructures and quantum coherence within these nanostructures.  It has been suggested that even single cell organisms are capable of memory and sophisticated interactions with the environment.  The study of such interactions has given rise to quantum biodynamics in biology suggesting new mechanisms through which organisms can respond to subtle changes in the environment, including stimuli from other organisms.  Coupled with alternative versions of quantum theory that may be the basis for integrating consciousness itself into science, these recent developments clearly must be considered as a basis for understanding parapsychology.

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For many, parapsychology flies in the face of modern science. In spite of the counterintuitive requirements of quantum physics, such as action at a distance, physics seems essentially mechanistic. In the life sciences, the biochemical paradigm predominates with the implication that the essential biological processes occur at the molecular level and above. Energy is packed into important biological molecules, like ATP, and transferred to the sites where needed. There seems to be no place for psi in the prevailing paradigms of physics or biology. Even the consideration that psi could be real seems unscientific to many.

In contrast to this view, there is a growing body of research that questions both the mechanistic and biochemical paradigms that hold so much sway in the physical and life sciences. Tiller (1993) described subtle energies in physics and biology that go beyond the prevailing Zeitgeists. Recent research on the physical effects of the vacuum and submolecular processes within living organisms open wide doors, implying substantial change in the conceptualization of nature itself.

Choquette (2001) suggested that a radical shift in the prevailing views of nature may be emerging, away from mechanism toward a "holonomic paradigm". New variables are introduced in the new paradigm that are far more compatible with psi than are traditional scientific views. Choquette (2001) suggested that recent data may advance the understanding of not only psi, but also consciousness and perhaps life itself. A substantial amount of data has accrued that supports this view.

In modern biology, bioenergetics refers to the transfer and conversion of biological energy. Focus is placed upon molecular structures and molecular mechanisms involved in energy transfer within key biological processes such as photosynthesis and respiration. Szent-Gyorgi (1957) used the term bioenergetics to refer to energy not confined within biomolecules but emitted or absorbed directly by tissue. As long ago as 1941 Szent-Gyorgi proposed that electrons can propagate through crystalline structures both within and between molecules, comprising semiconducting currents, entirely separate from the movement of ions, previously assumed to be the only possible basis for bioelectricity. He suggested that water, the most common substance of the body, can serve as a liquid crystal through which semiconducting currents can flow. Szent-Gyorgi’s work on bioenergetics was ignored for years but gradually became very influential. At present, principles of bioenergetics are being extended to a minute scale unimaginable a few decades ago. Recent studies suggest that new worlds are opening up within the nanostructures of cells.

One of the recent developments is the work of Donald Ingber on tensegrity. Ingber states that the standard model implies that cells are only cytoplasma surrounded by an elastic membrane, something like a balloon filled with molasses. Studies of the cellular nanostructure, however, revealed an internal architecture based upon microfilaments under continuous tension. Ingber suggests that the microfilaments provide a framework for cell architecture which is basic to cellular structure and mechanical responsiveness to forces in the environment. For instance, growth of a neural microtubule can be induced by simply pulling a nerve cell with a pipette. Determination of cellular form by microfilaments is directly related to cellular functioning. Furthermore, Ingber (1998) stated that "tensegrity structures function as coupled harmonic oscillators" which can provide a basis for nonlocal resonant interactions among cellular structures or entire cells.

In fact, the study of nonlocal resonance among cells and the propogation of particles through cellular microtubules has substantially extended the study of bioenergetics within the nanostructures of cells. Not so long ago the very existence of microtubules was unknown. It now appears that they play fundamental roles in the most basic processes of biology. Hameroff (1997) suggested that the cytoskeletan organizes processes occurring in mitosis, plays essential roles in cellular differentiation in the developing organism, and is important to the maintenance of cellular processes necessary to the health of the organism. Furthermore, an important role in transmission of energy and information within the nervous system has been proposed. For example, Hameroff, Dayhoff, Lahoz-Beltra, Rasmussen, Insinna and Koruga (1993) argued that the cytoskeleton provides a solid state network throughout cortical neurons. Furthermore, there is a correlation between production of proteins within microtubules and cognitive functioning. Inhibition of protein production caused cognitive deficits.

Pribram (1991) further proposed that the perceptual image is represented as a neural hologram, created by nonlocal resonance among the spines covering the neural dendrites. Sensory stimuli induce resonance among dendritic microprocesses yielding physical changes in dendritic structures analogous to light striking the film in an optical hologram. The totality of these resonances are called the holoscape, providing the basis of both the perceptual and memory image.

It is interesting that the holoscape is susceptiple to influences by the dendritic cytoskeleton, implying that cytosketal processes have a role in perception and memory. Pribram (1991, p. 279) noted that the macromolecules of protein in neural dendrites form oscillating dipoles, susceptible to amplification by cytoskeletal activity. Similarly Desmond and Levy (1988) found that long term synaptic potentiation (LTP), which is strongly implicated in episodic memory, results in changes in the shape of dendritic spines mediated by processes of the cytoskeleton. Dendritic spines become concave with a widened base after LTP is elicited, lowering electrical resistance. At the very least it appears that the cytoskeleton plays a dynamic role in the transmission of information which can contribute to other mechanisms of memory.

If one is willing to speculate a bit, a fundamental role can be hypothesized for the cytoskeleton as a memory mechanism. The familiar axonal spike through which a digital signal propagates across the nervous system is not sufficient for perception and memory in Pribram’s holonomic brain theory. Rather consciousness depends upon the nonlocal resonance among the dendritic microprocesses. Furthermore, such nonlocal resonance need not be limited to neurons since neural resonance may spread to and from the macromolecules of glial cells (e.g., Pribram, 1989, p. 63).

Elaborating upon the bioenergetics of Szent-Gyorgi, Becker (1991) proposed the same thing. According to Becker the supportive, nutritive role originally ascribed to glial cells gave way to the recognition that glial cells have the potential for long range signaling, contributing to important biological processes. Similar to Pribram’s dendritic resonance, Becker proposed that glial cells contribute to a more primitive analog system of neural communication. Becker argues that neurons are in fact modified glial cells, or at least descended from common precursors. After all, both arise from the same embryonic tissue. The evolution of neurons, according to Becker, supplemented but did not replace the more primitive analog signaling system that already existed in glial cells. Consistent with Pribram’s theory, Becker suggested that glial cells remain active contributors to information passed through the nervous system.

It takes no great leap of the imagination to extend such logic from the dynamic role of glial cells to an even more primitive dynamic role of the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton influences the processing of information spread through nonlocal resonance as was noted above (e.g., Desmond and Levy, 1988). Szent-Gyorgi (1972, p. 6) stated "Life has developed its processes gradually, never rejecting what it has built, but building over what has already taken place. As a result, the cell resembles the site of an archeological excavation with the successive strata on top of one another, the oldest one the deepest". One of the simplest sensory systems imaginable is the propagation of electrons, photons or similar particles through a crystalline structure (e.g., Szent-Gyorgi, 1941). Such submolecular transportation of particles through biocrystals have been discovered in modern organisms and is a rapidly growing area of research. One must wonder at what point such systems evolved. Could it be that the first living cells responded to changes in the environment through such structures which then provided the basis of more sophisticated information processing over the course of evolution? Becker and Selden (1985) discussed that hypothesis in detail.

Indirect support for such an idea can be found in the demonstration that even single cell organisms not only react to the environment but show the capacity for learning. The cytoskeleton appears to be essential to such rudimentary memory. Hameroff et al. (1993) reported that even the lowly paramecium shows reflex like responses to environmental stimuli. For example, when it encounters an obstacle, the paramecium backs away at an angle and starts off in a new direction. Paramecium will also escape from an aversive stimulus such as electric shock. Of particular interest there is evidence that paramecium show an acquisition curve over trials when escaping an aversive environment, indicative of learning. Other data suggest that paramecia can learn patterns in mazes. Hameroff et al. (1993, p. 323) suggest that these data can be explained by "signaling, information processing and working memory in paramecia microtubules". It appears that cytoskeletal structures, initially considered useful only for support and nutrient transport, play a complex information processing role in even single cell organisms.

Also of interest, it has been found that an electromagnetic pulse elicits a reflex in paramecia much the same as when an obstacle is encountered. Remarkably, the paramecium tend to turn the body axis parallel to electric lines of force. This suggests a high sensitivity to electromagnetic stimuli. Other data revealed that the movements of paramecia can be influenced by very weak magnetic fields introduced in the laboratory and also by variations of natural geomagnetic fields (e.g., Brown, 1962).

There is a substantial body of data indicating that many organisms are susceptible to the influence of extremely weak electromagnetic fields. For example, weak electromagnetic fields as small as 0.167 milliamps/sq. cm. were used successfully to condition eels and salmon (McCleave, Rommel and Cathcart, 1971). Various researchers have proposed that the repetitive movement of wings by some insects and birds may generate a minute current which interacts with the natural magnetic field as the organism flies, conceivably providing a means of navigating along a heading. Fluctuation of the paramecium cilia similarly generate a minute electrical signal which may even influence the movement of other organisms. That is, data indicate that two paramecia on a collision course sometimes make sudden stops and alter direction in a manner identical to the reflex reaction elicited by presentation of an electromagnetic pulse (e.g., Choquette, 2001, p. 94-95).

The minimum stimulus intensity needed to elicit such reflexive stopping in paramecium converges with the minimum intensity needed to excite nerve-muscle preparations from frog and human tissue (e.g., Presman, 1970). The implication is that simple organisms evolved with a sensitivity to surrounding Emfs which was maintained across phylogenetic groups. Structures of the cytoskeleton seem critical to such interactions with surrounding fields. It has even been proposed that the rapid coordination among birds in a flock and schools of fish depend upon sensitivity to subtle biocurrents of nearby organisms. Although models of such inter-organism communication have been proposed (e.g., Neurath, 1964), such phenomena are far from understood. Nevertheless, it can be seen that the existence of inter-organisms communication through biocurrents, even at the level of single cell organisms, may provide a framework within which to conceptualize the nonlocal communication central to parapsychology.

Recently, researchers suggested that the sensitivity of organisms to weak Emfs may be due, at least in part, to the existence of quantum coherence within organisms. It has been suggested that there is a basis for biological superconductivity and even the Josephson junction, which could enable organisms to sense magnetic flux at the quantum level. These fascinating and controversial suggestions converge in key ways with the data already discussed. The most common structures discussed as viable sites for quantum coherence within organisms have been none other than the microtubules. If microtubules or other nanostructures do in fact play a role in the sensitivity of organisms to surrounding Emfs, the existence of quantum coherence within nanostructures is of profound importance to any theory of parapsychology that incorporates them.

Every biological system is also a physical system, ultimately subject to the laws of quantum theory at the microlevel, like any physical system. Yet even Erwin Schrodinger, one of the founders of modern quantum theory, acknowledged that matter can be described more accurately when it is inorganic than when it is in a living system. There is more order and less entropy in living matter than is predicted by the laws of physics (i.e., Schrodinger, 1947). The dissatisfaction with physical descriptions of living organisms is consistent with Szent-Gyorgi's fundamental assumption that a biomatrix structures living matter through the liquid crystalline structure of water and semiconducting bioelectricity. That is, a new set of variables are introduced which contribute to the physical order within the organism.

Jibu and Yasue (1993, p. 130) similarly suggested that electrical polarizations among biomolecules interact with water molecules to provide a "quasi-crystalline structure". Consistent with Schrodinger, Jibu and Yasue have described this interaction of biological fields from the perspective of quantum theory. They have developed "quantum brain dynamics" (QBD) in which quantum processes are fundamental to consciousness (e.g., Jibu, Pribram & Yasue, 1995). Quantum brain dynamics are consistent with the subtle electrical effects described by Szent-Gyorgi which ultimately must be subject to the principles of quantum theory.

Ricciardi and Umezawa (1967) were perhaps the first to describe the brain and consciousness within the framework of quantum physics. In contrast to our familiar sensory experience of the world, quantum theory requires the existence of nonlocal effects in which the state of one physical system can determine the state of a second physical system, removed far enough to prevent any local interactions with the first system (e.g., Hiley & Peat, 1987, p. 13-14).

According to Ricciardi and Umezawa (1967), a spatially distributed system forms which, through the principle of spontaneous symmetry breaking, becomes the basis of top down processing. Such a system is consistent with the descriptions of top down processing found in chaos theory and phase shifts of certain physical systems such as superconductors (e.g., Bohm, 1986, p. 123 - 124). Building on that initial paper, Hiroomi Umezawa and his colleagues proposed that long range correlations within neurons develop from the interaction of two quantum fields (e.g., Stuart, Takahashi, & Umezawa, 1979). Others have independently developed similar ideas.

Just a year after the seminal paper by Ricciardi and Umezawa, Herbert Frohlich, a physicist with expertise in superconductivity, proposed similar ideas regarding quantum processes in biology. According to Frohlich (1968), a thin region just inside the membrane of neurons and other cells enables energy to be transmitted in coherent waves which propagate without thermal loss much like current in a superconductor flows without electrical resistance.

Frohlich suggested that protein molecules at the cell membrane or in the microtubules might be aligned into a quantum coherent state on the macroscale if a minimum threshold of energy is attained. It has been suggested that microtubules of both neurons and glial cells will enable quantum coherence such as Frohlich proposed (e.g., Pribram, 1991, p. 270). Frohlich predicted that coherent excitations should occur between 109 and 1011 Hz, in the microwave region.

Similar to the way atomic nuclei are aligned by the pulse of a magnetic field in magnetic resonance imagery, a complex resonance may arise from the oscillating dipoles within proteins and the surrounding Emf (e.g., Frohlich & Kremer, 1983). The observation of non-thermal effects of microwaves upon biological tissue are consistent with Frohlich's theory (e.g., Jibu, Hagan, Hameroff, Pribram & Yasue, 1994). Frohlich was among the first to predict that a living system could convert a quantum of magnetic flux to electric charge, much like the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). In particular, the impact of a quantum of magnetic flux in the environment upon the dipoles in protein molecules can be transduced to an electric charge which may propagate through a crystalline or quasicrystalline structure in the organism.

Frohlich provided a possible theoretical basis for the sensitivity of organisms to extremely weak fields. Frohlich believes that microtubules may facilitate quantum coherence by virtue of their small size and quasicrystalline structure. Frohlich further suggested that coherent states within microtubules may provide structure to the water inside them. Frohlich's proposals clearly call to mind Szent-Gyorgi's biomatrix of liquid crystals conducting bioelectricity.

Furthermore, very similar ideas have been advanced by Jibu, Hagan, Hameroff, Pribram and Yasue (1994). Extending the Quantum Brain Dynamics of Jibu and Yasue (1993), they proposed that long-range coherent quantum phenomena occur within cytoskeletal microtubules. The proposed quantum coherence arises from an optical system of information processing based upon the generation of photons as water molecules interact with the electromagnetic radiation associated with proteins forming walls of the microtubules.

Jibu et al. (1994, p. 199) described "superradiance" in microtubules. Something like an optical version of a superconductor, the emergence of coherent photons are predicted inside the hollow microtubules which propagate without loss of energy. This quantum coherent state is described as "self-induced transparency." The exchange of energy between the Emf and the water molecules can create or annihilate such photons. Dicke (1954) was the first to describe superradiance, a macroscopic process which results in such pulses of photons. More recently, Del Giudice, Preparata and Vitiello (1988) stated that water can release pulses of photons in a laser like process. Del Giudice et al. further noted that the substantial electric dipoles of water molecules can coherently interact with the surrounding Emf to generate macroscopic phenomena which could be fundamental to the organization of living matter.

According to Jibu et al. (1994), just as a superconductor spontaneously reorganizes into a new physical state so that electrons flow without resistance once the temperature drops below a critical value, so photons spontaneously reorganize to propagate along a waveguide through the water filled microtubules as if they were perfectly transparent, once the Emf reaches a critical value. This transition of a physical system into a new coherent phase as the system moves farther away from equilibrium is fundamental to the dynamics of chaos theory where it is known as spontaneous symmetry breaking (e.g., Jibu, Pribram & Yasue, 1996). Both superconductivity and superradiance can be understood as the result of such spontaneous symmetry breaking.

It is the Emf of the proteins that produces the phase shift to superradiance. This is relevant to Pribram’s holonomic brain theory in which the holoscape is the basis of the perceptual and memory images. As input from the sensory apparatus continually shifts the holoscape from one state to the next, the protein dipoles from which the holoscape arises are also realigned. The distribution of protein dipoles in the wall of the microtubule can excite the water molecules in the core of the microtubule. If enough protein dipoles are excited in a local region, the energy of the water molecules is phase shifted into a coherent state.

When the energy decreases, the water molecules collectively drop back to a lower energy level, emitting coherent photons inside the microtubule. The process can then be repeated. The proteins and water molecules thus form a cooperative system through which photons emanate through the microtubule, the entire process being driven by the sensory stimulation which activates the protein dipoles. Jibu et al. (1994) suggested that superradiance may provide an interface between the classical dynamics which can describe the movement of ions or other thermally induced molecular activity and quantum dynamics of coherent systems free from thermal noise and loss.

Jibu, et al. (1996) further proposed that the structure of the thin layer of water adjacent to the dendritic membrane yields quantum coherence analogous to the process in microtubules. As before, the coherence arises from spontaneous symmetry breaking triggered by the charge distribution, in this case, among the perimembranous regions of dendritic spines. The sensory stimulation redistributes the charge distribution among the dendritic spines (i.e., the holoscape), triggering spontaneous symmetry breaking among water molecules of the dendritic membrane. The water molecules are phase shifted into a coherent state that again results in the emission of photons just as in the microtubules.

Jibu et al. (1996) stated that the radiation field manifests two distinct modes, "the normal wave mode with real wave number and the evanescent wave mode with imaginary wave number". The latter describes the "evanescent photons", also called "tunneling photons", which propagate through the process of superradiance. The photons can propagate through both the inner and external region adjacent to the cell membrane and also between brain cells.

Jibu et al. (1996) further proposed that these evanescent photons of the inner perimembranous region and the outer perimembranous region, separated by the cell membrane constitute a Josephson junction, as when two superconducting currents are separated by a thin barrier. Like the Josephson junction built into the most sensitive magnetometers, such natural Josephson junctions will also enable responsiveness to very weak magnetic fields since the magnetic flux causes tunneling through the barrier altering the flow of current.

Jibu et al. (1996) suggested that quantum tunneling permits evanescent photons to pass from the inner perimembranous region to the outer region. Other researchers have also stated that the Josephson effect is possible in biological cells (e.g., Del Giudice, Doglia, Milani, Smith and Vitiello, 1989). Jibu et al. (1996) suggest that coupling will occur among the Josephson junctions of the dendritic microprocesses so that they make a substantial contribution to the EEG.

This superradiance is congruent with Becker's analog system of neural conduction. Also in agreement with the dynamic role Becker attributes to glial cells, Jibu et al. (1994, p. 205) suggested that coherent propagation occurs among astrocytes, one type of glial cell. The biomolecules of both neurons and glial cells contribute to the structure of water molecules which interact with the dendritic membranes in a nonlocal, cooperative process according to the principles of quantum mechanics. The holoscape is a temporary stabilization arising from this process.

Jibu et al. (1994) suggested that the quantum process that stabilizes the holoscape is relevant to fundamental questions regarding consciousness. It is proposed that quantum coherence in the microtubules and the perimembranous region accounts for the unity of the conscious image which arises from widely distributed cortical activity. Evidence in support of this conclusion is provided by the effects of anesthesia. Jibu et al. (1994) stated that anesthetics in the microtubules alter protein-water binding which may directly alter quantum coherence. Similarly, Jibu et al. (1996) indicated that defects in the structured water are caused by chlorine ions which are suggested as the basis of the ensuing anesthetic effect.

The proposition by Jibu et al. (1994) that the phase shifts in microtubules to a coherent state are essential for consciousness implies that there is some threshold level of coherence within the brain necessary for consciousness. At the level of the whole brain, consciousness is a phase shift from sleep or coma to the waking state. Other researchers have proposed that quantum processes within microtubules are fundamental to understanding consciousness. Most notably, Hameroff and Penrose (e.g., Hameroff & Penrose, 1996) proposed that microtubules enable the orchestration of quntum events that collapse into consciousness. Hameroff further suggested that the research on quantum consciousness implies an equally profound quantum vitalism.

According to Hameroff (1997), both consciousness and life itself are fundamental processes of nature, not the result of "chance" events as the world developed. The unitary quantum coherence found in microtubules is basic to defining the living state. Forces described in quantum physics but typically omitted from biology, such as the Casimir effect, yield physically measurable effects of the vacuum itself. If the coherence in microtubules can amplify such hidden variables of the vacuum, it could enable new stability within the living organism that accounts for the missing entropy that troubled Schrodinger many years ago.

Similarly, Jibu et al., (1994) propose that neovitalism, based upon the "quantum coherent holographic field" is consistent with the data they described regarding evanescent photons in microtubules. The neovitalism proposed by Jibu et al. (1994) and Hameroff (1997) is firmly grounded in scientific data and theory rather than a mysterious life force. The submolecular bioelectricity described by Szent-Gyorgi also has a vitalistic role, essential to defining the living state. The development of Quantum Biodynamics is an extension of the line of thinking Szent-Gyorgi pioneered when he rejected biochemistry as sufficient to account for the fundamental principles of life and introduced his submolecular bioenergetics. But the remarkable implication that developed in recent work is that the analysis of life processes at the finest levels leads into a new domain of subtle energy of the vacuum. This is a profound discovery. It may be that attempts to understand parapsychology have failed until now because these critical new variables are only now becoming widely recognized.

As one researcher stated, "Molecular biology, in spite of its vast successes, cannot open the deep mysteries of life, to say nothing of the foundation of psi. That level, which is the object of molecular biology in essence does not bear in itself the specific character of life; indeed nucleic acids can have the identical chemical composition both in living and in dead organisms. This simple consideration leads to the need to search for the specific character of strictly vital processes at a level substantially deeper than molecular energy levels". (Pushkin, 1974).

If the fundamental laws of nature are intertwined with consciousness, then the influence of consciousness on matter is a more intuitive event. Although there is considerable data indicating that such is the case (e.g., Jahn, 1987) skepticism remains high, in part, because of the mechanistic paradigm that dominates science. The extension of bioenergetics to nanostructures and the emergence of quantum brain dynamics forces a further consideration of the variables underlying mechanism and biochemistry.

Pribram (1991) makes no attempt to account for psi but does describe the holoscape as an image that exists in a Hilbert space, beyond the familiar three dimensions. One may wonder if the holoscape can serve as the basis of not only the perceptual and memory image, but also the telepathic image (cf. Pribram, 1991, p. 273). Although no appeal is made to quantum coherence, Walker (2000) presented an analysis of consciousness based upon quantum processes in which parapsychology is fundamental to the theory. The quantum processes Walker described are entirely congruent with the data on microtubules described above (i.e., Walker, 2000, p. 351).

What we are left with is the crumbling of the greatest barriers to the analysis of psi. As data are gathered that question the prevailing mechanistic paradigm, a new paradigm begins to emerge that actually implies that psi should exist. There is no adequate theory of parapsychology at present, but the extension of theories of perception, memory and consciousness to the level of nanoneurology provides a profound new framework on which new theories of psi will undoubtedly emerge.