The Production of Consciousness Out of States of Consciousness

The human brain contains about five million magnetite crystals per gram, with the meninges holding twenty times that number. These 'biomagnetite' crystals have shapes not found in nature, suggesting they formed within the tissue rather than being absorbed externally. Their orientation appears to maximize magnetic moment, potentially enabling groups of crystals to function as a system. The authors propose a heuristic metaphor comparing all cognitive and sensory modalities to a sound mixing board, where each modality is a vertical rheostat—enhanced functioning toward the top, suppressed toward the bottom. Becoming conscious of phenomena in any modality involves adjusting that modality's rheostat.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract It has been found that there are five million magnetite crystals per gram in the human brain. Interestingly, the meninges, has twenty times that number. These ‘biomagnetite’ crystals demonstrate two interesting features. The first is that their shapes do not occur in nature, suggesting that they were formed in the tissue, rather than being absorbed from outside. The other is that these crystals appear to be oriented so as to maximize their magnetic moment, which tends to give groups of these crystals the capacity to act as a system. We hypothesize that the entire set of modalities, cognitive and sensory, may be heuristically compared to a sound mixing board. In this metaphor, all the various modalities are represented as vertical rheostats with enhanced functioning increasing towards the top, and suppressed function increasing towards the bottom. Further, the act of becoming conscious of phenomena in any given modality involves the adjustment of that modality’s ‘rheostat’.