Does consciousness arise from quantum processes in the brain?

Stuart Hameroff is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology at the University of Arizona, and he has a daring theory that consciousness is far more than just a computational process — it’s actually quantum. Together with the esteemed mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, Hameroff is the co-author of the interesting, but highly controversial, Orch OR model of consciousness (Orchestrated Objective Reduction ), which suggests that quantum phenomenon, rather than classical mechanics, can explain conscious awareness. According to this model, consciousness arises from a kind of wave function collapse that occurs in isolation, called objective reduction. This wave function collapse, they argue, is the only possible non-physical thing that can account for a non-computable process, namely consciousness. They speculate that this could happen inside the brain’s microtubules.

In this one hour long clip Hameroff talks about various theories of mind, how anesthesia can inform the debate, the Orch OR model, and also discuss quantum souls, the afterlife, reincarnation, and Hinduism and Buddhism.