Just over a decade ago distinguished British theoretical physicist Sir Roger Penrose hypothesized that consciousness may be the result of sophisticated quantum effects within the brain. The idea was not generally accepted as it was argued by others that such effects were too delicate to survive the relatively high bodily temperatures. Sir Roger was too highly respected and far too big a gun for lesser scientists to start baying at his heels as happened to the likes of Professors Robert Jahn of Princeton University and and J.B.Rhine of Dukes University. Drs Stephan Schmidt and Pym Van Lommel who have conducted parallel researches into the reach of the mind seem largely to have been ignored.

However, recent research on individual nerve cells suggests that there might be a loophole in these arguments against the quantum effect. A team led by Dr Rita Pizzi of the University of Milan created two small arrays of human nerve cells and monitored the effects of stimulating them.. The arrays were first connected together then separated. One array was subjected to pulses of laser light. Despite being isolated from its partner, the second array still responded as if it had been struck by the laser light.

Reporting their findings in the journal Quantum Information and Computation, the team suggested that the apparent connection between the two arrays may be due to the kind of quantum effects proposed by Penrose. If that is the case, some believe it may explain the binding together of brain activity "thought" to underpin consciousness.

If quantum effects are at work, they might explain the reports of telepathy (“distant intentionality”) detected elsewhere under laboratory conditions. Many of the studies have been carried out in sealed, electrically screened rooms to rule out conventional forms of communications and yet still have produced positive results. The answer may lie in the quantum phenomenon of “entanglement” in which particles stay in intimate and instantaneous communication with each other, even when separated by vast distances. One objection to this (from me) is that minds which hitherto have never been connected may communicate.I have this partcular experiment

A quite separate study was carried out at Manchester University on identical twins and triplets. Three teenage male triplets were separated and one was subjected to reasonably painful electrical shocks every time he got a wrong answer in a set of problems. The two separated boys were monitored by electroencephalogram machines. Each denied and found laughable that they may have reacted to their sibling’s mental reactions – but the machine showed that they had each reacted strongly at a subconscious level and at the identical moment of their brother’s pain. I recorded that particular experiment on DVD.

The wheels of progress and knowledge turn exceedingly slow.