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AIP conference proceedings

Examining the nature of retrocausal effects in biology and psychology

Julia Mossbridge

Published Jan 1, 2017• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Multiple laboratories have reported physiological and psychological changes associated with future events that are designed to be unpredictable by normal sensory means. Such phenomena seem to be examples of retrocausality at the macroscopic level. Here I will discuss the characteristics of seemingly retrocausal effects in biology and psychology, specifically examining a biological and a psychological form of precognition, predictive anticipatory activity (PAA) and implicit precognition. The aim of this examination is to offer an analysis of the constraints posed by the characteristics of macroscopic retrocausal effects. Such constraints are critical to assessing any physical theory that purports to explain these effects. Following a brief introduction to recent research on PAA and implicit precognition, I will describe what I believe we have learned so far about the nature of these effects, and conclude with a testable, yet embryonic, model of macroscopic retrocausal phenomena.

DOI
10.1063/1.4982775

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Multiple laboratories have reported physiological and psychological changes associated with future events that are designed to be unpredictable by normal sensory means. Such phenomena seem to be examples of retrocausality at the macroscopic level. Here I will discuss the characteristics of seemingly retrocausal effects in biology and psychology, specifically examining a biological and a psychological form of precognition, predictive anticipatory activity (PAA) and implicit precognition. The aim of this examination is to offer an analysis of the constraints posed by the characteristics of macroscopic retrocausal effects. Such constraints are critical to assessing any physical theory that purports to explain these effects. Following a brief introduction to recent research on PAA and implicit precognition, I will describe what I believe we have learned so far about the nature of these effects, and conclude with a testable, yet embryonic, model of macroscopic retrocausal phenomena.
The possibility of retrocausation has been considered to explain the occurrence of anomalous phenomena in which the ostensible effects are preceded by their causes. A scrutiny of both experimental methodology and the experimental data is called for. A review of experimental data reveals the existence of such effects to be a serious possibility. The experimental methodology entails some conceptual difficulties, these depending on the underlying assumptions about the effects. A major point is an ambiguity between anomalous acquisition of information and retrocausation in exerted influences.A unifying theory has been proposed, based upon the fundamental randomness of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanical randomness may be regarded as a tenacious phenomenon, that apparently is only resolved by the human observer of the random variable in question. This has led to the “observational theory” of anomalous phenomena, which is based upon the assumption that the preference of a motivated observer is able to interact with the extant indefinite random variable that is being observed. This observational theory has led to a novel prediction, which has been corroborated in experiments. Moreover, different classes of anomalous phenomena can be explained by the same basic mechanism. This foregoes retroactive causation, but, instead, requires that macroscopic physical variables remain in a state of indefinite reality and thus remain influenceable by mental efforts until these are observed. More work is needed to discover the relevant psychological and neurophysiological variables involved in effective motivated observation. Besides these practicalities, the fundamentals still have some interesting loose ends.
In 2011, Daryl Bem published a report of nine parapsychological experiments showing evidence of retrocausal information transfer. Earlier in 2016, the team of Bem, Tressoldi, Rabeyron, and Duggan published the results of a meta-analysis containing 81 independent replications of the original Bem experiments (total of 90 with the originals).[1] This much larger database continues to show positive results of generally comparable effect size, thus demonstrating that the effects claimed by Bem can be replicated by independent researchers and greatly strengthening the case for empirically observed retrocausation. Earlier (2011) work by this author showed how a modification of one of Bem’s original experiments could be used to test the mechanism implicitly proposed by Echeverria, Klinkhammer, and Thorne to explain how retrocausal phenomena can exist without any risk of self-contradictory event sequences (time paradoxes). In light of the new publication and new evidence, the current work generalizes the previous analysis which was restricted to only one of Bem’s experimental genres (precognitive approach and avoidance). The current analysis shows how minor modifications can be made in Bem’s other experimental genres of retroactive priming, retroactive habituation, and retroactive facilitation of recall to test the EKT anti-paradox mechanism. If the EKT hypothesis is correct, the modified experiments, while continuing to show replicable retrocausal phenomena, will also show a characteristic pattern of distortion in the statistics of the random selections used to drive the experiments.
Evidence for retrocausation in the field of psychophysical phenomena is to date questionable. Associated successful theoretical formulations would have to make accurate predictions and the purported evidence would have to be independently replicated. It is shown here that purported evidence for retrocausation within the field of psychophysical phenomena, such as the hypothesis of micro‐PK —that the statistical distributions of random processes are mean shifted by thought alone— can find more satisfactory descriptions. Those do not necessarily invoke transfer of information backward in time, while they provide mathematically structured formulations and allow for clear predictions. They refer to a two‐state Markovian process characterized by equal self‐transition probabilities, p=q>50%. This Markovian behavior introduces persistence and clustering of like binary states leading to a broadened scatter of statistical averages of individual micro‐PK tests about their theoretically expected mean, namely 50%, corresponding to that of an unbiased process. The origin of this broadening mechanism is currently unclear. It is, therefore, argued here that an established theory of mind‐matter interaction should precede the investigation of the validity of retrocausation within psychophysical phenomena. Thus the correct theory can be decided among alternatives.
The performance of biological sensory systems is shown to reach the quantum limits to measurement, this being true in spite of the high levels of thermal noise associated with operation at physiological temperatures.Theoretical issues associated with quantum-limited measurement at high temperatures are addressed and strategies for such measurements which make use of active filtering are formulated.Experimental and theoretical evidence supporting the existence of active filters in the sensors of the inner ear is discussed.Quantum-limited measurement requires that the internal dynamics of the primary sensory amplifier have a quantum mechanical "phase-memory" comparable to the time scale of the measurement, on the order of milliseconds for biological sensors.This millisecond coherence time invalidates conventional (and semi-classical) descriptions of biological systems in terms of chemical kinetics, and demands an analysis of quantum effects in molecular dynamics.Simple model Hamiltonians are formulated which seem to describe the dynamics of biological molecules and field-theoretic techniques are developed to solve these --2 --Hamiltonians in a variety of parameter regimes.Conditions for non-trivial quantum effects in these models are compared with experiments on the primary events of photosynthesis and the low-temperature behavior of heme proteins.Predicted quantum effects are observed and independent observations support the assignment of parameters outside the regime where semi-classical approximations are valid.The same model Hamiltonians predict that molecular vibrations exhibit a superradiant instability in polymers where each subunit catalyzes a chemical reaction of sufficient speed.This instability results in macroscopic quantum coherence of the sort required to account for quantum-limited measurement in the sensory systems.Such "phonon super-radiance" provides a natural mechanism of amplification and active filtering, several features of which are irt accord with experiments in the sensory receptors of the inner ear.In each case considered, theoretical analysis demonstrates that quantum effects in biology are significant if not dominant, and this leads to fundamentally new intepretations of several biological processes.Detailed experiments are proposed which will provide quantitative tests of these new interpretations.vii B. Further comments on photon counting ...
This conference proceedings would be of interest to theoretical and experimental physicists in the areas of foundations of physics, nature of time, foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum measurement, quantum computation. Philosophers of science and physics. Retrocausation, the process whereby the future affects its past, is central to the modern movement to understand the fundamental physical nature of time. This conference volume presents the most recent theoretical and experimental results at the forefront of the nascent field of physical chronology.