Consciousness may arise from quantum processes inside microtubules within brain neurons, orchestrated by biological mechanisms and culminating in moments of conscious awareness through a specific form of quantum state reduction. This orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) theory links brain activity to the fundamental structure of the universe, connecting quantum mechanics and space-time geometry. The review also suggests that faster microtubule vibrations could produce beat frequencies corresponding to observed EEG patterns. The authors conclude that consciousness is an intrinsic feature of the universe.
Conscious understanding is a non-computational process requiring a physical basis beyond current theory, specifically gravitational effects on quantum mechanics that cause wave-function collapse (OR). These OR events allow classical reality to emerge from quantum reality, and when orchestrated, they become conscious processes (Orch-OR). Relativity theory implies OR has retro-active effects, explaining how conscious decisions can act within fractions of a second, contradicting experiments suggesting such acts are unconscious. This also accounts for puzzling effects found by Benjamin Libet in the 1970s.