Theory Soup

**At noon EST, I will have a post up with the winner of the contest from yesterday**



I have to admit that my questions and correlations seem to take me to a place that I’m certain others must have visited; the realm of tectonics/geology/paranormal/human minds. I don’t think this is a new observation by man, or else Stonehenge and Machu Pichu might never have been built. The question is, what theories are out there?



Here are some theories I’ve found that can perhaps tie together the findings I’ve had on haunted sites in my last post pertaining to paranormal clusters. You can look these theories up in Wikipedia for more info:



“Tectonic Strain Theory”

The brainchild of Michael Persinger, a researcher in cognitive neuroscience. This hypothesis ties together such phenomenon as UFOs, religious experiences, and other paranormal experiences. Persinger argued that strain within the earth's crust near seismic faults produces intense electromagnetic (EM) fields, creating bodies of light that some interpret as glowing UFOs. Alternatively, he argued that the EM fields generate hallucinations in the temporal lobe, based on images from popular culture, of alien craft, beings, communications, or creatures. When you hear TAPS talking about EMF causing hallucinations, feelings of being watched, and such, this is what they’re talking about.



“Electromagnetic Field Theory of Consciousness”

This theory was proposed by Susan Pockett, Johnjoe McFadden, and E. Roy John. This theory says that the electromagnetic field generated by the brain (measurable by electrocorticography) is the actual carrier of conscious experience. Locating consciousness in the brain's EM field, rather than the neurons, has the advantage of neatly accounting for how information located in millions of neurons scattered throughout the brain can be unified into a single conscious experience (sometimes called the binding problem): the information is unified in the EM field. In this way EM field consciousness can be considered to be 'joined-up information'.



“Quantum Mind Theories”

Quantum mind theories are based on the premise that quantum mechanics is necessary to fully understand the mind and brain, particularly concerning an explanation of consciousness. This approach is considered a minority opinion in science, although it does have the support of the well-known Roger Penrose, who has proposed a quantum mind theory in conjunction with Stuart Hameroff. Karl H. Pribram and Henry Stapp have also proposed variations.



Lots of questions, lots of theories. Some day, someone’s going to tie it all together into something we can not only weigh and measure but repeat and control. I can hardly wait!