The Role of Quantum Mechanics in Understanding the Phenomenon of Consciousness

Quantum theories of consciousness, including those by Penrose-Hameroff, Tegmark, Stapp, Fischer, and Mensky, fail to fully explain how complex physical systems generate mental experience without violating the causal closure of the physical world or the epistemological completeness of physics. Quantum mechanics offers processes that may underlie the psyche but does not account for the phenomenal aspect of subjective reality. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, however, suggests a way consciousness and body could interact without breaking energy conservation. Current quantum theories are largely panprotopsychic, but face a problem because the protomental property must be quantifiable and appear in physical equations. Developing more effective quantum theories requires an emergent approach that explains stepwise transitions across ontological levels—physical, chemical, biological, neurophysiological, and psychic.

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Abstract

The article analyzes the effectiveness of quantum theories of mental experience in relation to two ontological problems - the problem of the existence of consciousness in the material world and the problem of the interaction of consciousness and body. A critical analysis of the quantum theories of consciousness by Penrose-Hameroff, M. Tegmark, G. Stapp, M. Fischer and M.B. Mensky shows that they fail to fully explain how complex physical systems generate mental experience without violating the principle of causal closure of the physical world and the principle of epistemological completeness of physics. Quantum mechanics provides specific processes that are the physical basis of the psyche, but do not explain the phenomenal aspect of subjective reality. Nevertheless, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle gives an understanding of how the interaction of consciousness and body within the scientific picture of the world can be carried out without violating the law of energy conservation. It is shown that the quantum theories of consciousness currently being developed have a predominantly panprotopsychic character, which faces a problem due to the fact that the protomental property of physical systems must be expressed quantitatively and correspond to the value included in the physical equations. As a result, it is concluded that in order to develop quantum theories of consciousness more effectively, it is necessary to give an emergent character, not jumping from the quantum level to the psychic, but explaining the mechanism of the emergence of systemic properties during the sequential transition between different ontological regions of existence, including physical, chemical, biological, neurophysiological and psychic.