Anaesthesia and Consciousness

Posted by Simon Raggett on 30 April 2009 | 1 Comments

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Stuart Hameroff, co-author of the Orch-OR (orchestrated objective reduction) theory of consciousness, and himself an anaesthetist, has advanced the hypothesis that the action of anaesthetic gases depends on quantum processes. Studies made in the latter decades of the 20th century indicated that anaesthetic gases act in hydrophobic pockets within proteins. (Franks & Lieb, 1982-4; Halsey, 1989). Van der Waals forces act between anaesthetic gases and non-polar amino acids making up the proteins. Van der Waals forces represent the attraction or repulsion of negative or positive electrical charges arising on atoms or molecules in close proximity.

Proteins are comprised of chains of amino acids. The folding of proteins, or change in their conformation, is a function of the attraction and repulsion of amino acid side groups, by means of van der Waals forces. Receptors for neurotransmitters are the area most susceptible to anaesthetics, but they appear to affect a range of other proteins such as ion channels, second messengers, and the microtubules and microtubule associated proteins that are important in the Orch-OR theory.

Hameroff’s suggests that anaesthetics may disrupt conformational switching in protein. Given that anaesthetics are used to ablate consciousness, this carries the implication that consciousness itself is related to conformational switching in protein. Hameroff has been responsible for proposing a neural mechanism to support Roger Penrose’s theory that consciousness and some areas of human understanding represent a connection to the geometry of spacetime, for Penrose, the fundamental level of the universe.

Simon Raggett


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  • Professor Kim Bong Han's experimental work on acupuncture meridians in the 1960's in Korea focused on two duct systems; the Internal Duct System which are free floating within the vascular and lymphatic vessels perhaps suggesting that they developed in embryogenesis, prior to the formation of the arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels.

    The second series, the Intra-External Duct System, are found along the surface of the internal organs and appear to form a network which is entirely independent of the vascular, lymphatic and nervous systems.

    A third series, the External Duct System, was found to run alongside the outer surface of the walls of blood and lymphatic vessels.

    There are other ducts found in the layers of the skin and a fourth series which is distributed in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

    All these systems were found to be interconnected and fluid extracted from them showed high levels of DNA, RNA, amino acids and hormonal substances, suggesting a link between the meridian system and the endocrine glands. On severing the meridian going to the liver of a frog, it was established that serious vascular degeneration took place after 48 hours, showing a link between the meridians and nutritive flow to the organs.

    He also established that meridian ducts were formed in chicks within 15 hours of conception, before the most rudimentary organ development, suggesting that the acupuncture meridians exert some influence on the migration and spatial orientation of the internal organs.

    Integrating Kim's work with that of Dr Harold Burr, who mapped the electrical fields around salamander embryos, there is a concurrence of opinion that an electrical axis developed in the unfertilised salamander egg which corresponded to the future orientation of the brain and central nervous system in the adult organism.

    Combining these studies with Kirlian photography, one may suggest that there is an energy-field template, or etheric body, perhaps in holographic structure, directing the growth of the organism.

    The conclusion being drawn is that prior to the materialisation of the physical body, a virtual template exists through which the energy is modulated to emerge into this reality.

    References: Vibrational Medicine - Dr. Richard Gerber M.D. Bear & Co. 1988
    H.S. Burr - The Fields of Life (New York Ballantine Books,1972)
    S. Rose-Neil - The Work of Professor Kim Bong Han (The Acupuncturist vol. 1 1967 page 15)

    Posted by Robert de Vos, 06/05/2009 10:16am (3 years ago)

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