by Michael Maciel

Scientists have come up with a new theory of consciousness, the CEMI field theory. (See the link below.) Publishing his theory in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness, Professor Johnjoe McFadden posits that consciousness is in fact the brain’s energy field. This theory could pave the way toward the development of conscious AI, enabling robots to be aware and have the ability to think.

This theory is fascinating but at the same time feels desperate. Not that it isn’t true, just that it’s not true enough. It illustrates the long-standing battle between the bottom-up theorists and the top-down theorists—those who favor complexity arising out of the primordial and those who favor the primordial “reaching” for a pre-existing field of intelligence.

As I’m sure you’re aware, mystics have known about the magnetic field generated by the human body (and all life forms) forever. They just used different names for it. This new theory seems to fall short in that it doesn’t take into account (at least not in this article) the fact that electromagnetic fields are everywhere and at all scales. Knowing this, why would it be hard to conclude complex interactions between them? And not just interactions but induction—one field, more complex and more potentialized, affecting and even forming another?

We already know that the brain is mostly a reducing valve designed to make sense of an infinitely large dataset, meaning in this case the intricate matrix of electromagnetic information the universe is awash in. Most of what we call “us” is entirely and perhaps irretrievably below the threshold of our awareness, such as the autonomic functions of our bodies. Thank God for that! If I had to consciously control my metabolism or my calcium balance, I’d be dead in seconds. 

Mystics have always said that consciousness is universal and that the body is a result of it, not the other way around. This CEMI field theory seems like a preliminary step in that direction.

Researcher proposes new theory of consciousness