Power Up Your Brain Read Online Free PDF

far apart they might be from each other. Variables in the condition of each particle remain undetermined until they are observed and measured. For example, when one entangled particle has a positive charge, its mate will have a negative charge. Reversing the charge of one causes an instantaneous reversal in the other. This defies the laws of General Relativity because it would involve a signal traveling faster than the speed of light. Yet the concept of entanglement is consistent with the laws of quantum mechanics, which describe a universe in which distant interactions are not only permitted but commonplace. Quantum mechanics is thought to apply only to subatomic particles because quantum effects are not observable on a larger scale. But Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona, and Jack A. Tuszynski, a physicist at the University of Alberta, both suggest that quantum processing—on a level larger than subatomic—may actually be occurring inside the brain. 2
    A commonly accepted scientific model states that consciousness arises as the result of the computational power—the information processing capabilities—of the human brain. Hameroff is studying microtubules, which are structural components of the cell that transport nutrients from the cell body to the axon terminal. In Hameroff’s research, he noted that anesthesia works through an effect on neural microtubules. The correlation between consciousness and computational power led Hameroff to reason that these microtubules could, in fact, act as information-processing modules, which would increase the current estimates of human computational capabilities more than a millionfold. And if this were the case, simple computing power could offer humans the mental “bandwidth” necessary to commune consciously with the biosphere—in essence tapping into the information of our interconnected universe. With research such as this, scientists are finding models to elucidate what shamans and seers have so elegantly and simply explained in the past as our ability to have an active dialogue with all of nature.
    YOUR COMPUTATIONAL MIND
     
    The number of neurons in the brain is 10 to the 11th power— that’s a 1 followed by 11 zeroes, or 100 billion! With close to 10,000 synapses in every large neuron and with switch rates close to 1,000 times per second, this means that the number of operations the brain can process per second is 10 to the 18th power. 3 While this is an incredibly large number, it becomes minute if neuronal microtubules are involved as computational subunits. With more than 100 million microtubules in each neuron, the increased computational capability of the brain becomes staggeringly immense.
    But whether the number of computations the human brain can perform is a 10 followed by 18 zeroes or a 10 followed by 27 zeroes is not as consequential as how well we are using the brain we have now. If we were to ask you to remember the song “Hey Jude” for a moment and then ask you to forget it, you, in common with most people, would have a hard time putting it out of your mind. Regardless of the possible number of computations our brain is capable of, the truth of the matter is that most people use most of their computational ability to dwell on everyday problems. This waste of a good brain leaves hardly any computational power for innovation, creative problem solving, and enlightenment.
    If Hameroff is right about microtubules exhibiting quantum mechanical events inside your brain cells, then consider the possibilities and potentials that you are capable of, especially when you turn off thoughts of fear, sex, greed, or incessant worry. You could have the power to engage in nonlocal interactions, to access information from across the galaxy, and to draw upon the lessons from your past, your future, or even from the collective past and future of humanity—just as enlightened meditators and shamans do and have done. As the Dalai